generations blood legacy
by Navage
Summary: SEQUEL TO BLOOD GENESIS. Its a dark time for navar, as he sets off in for his vandetta against the isidious organazation. but this adventure holds mysteries and suprises a plenty, and deep within navar, uncoils somehting dark, and sinister.


**Book two:**

**Blood legacy**

_**[Authors note: well I thought I would start off by simply addressing this book, well because it is DIFFERENT. It will be interesting to see if this book exists past the notoriety of nostalgia, in a sense that this story doesn't exist to serve as an advancement of everybody's characters, this story has its own narrative, and admittingly it follows the same trait as spider-man 3, but I would like to believe that it exists past, and beyond the foundations spider-man 3 had. And secondly, yes the story does follow my character more, but one has to understand, that this book is the middle of the story. It is a transition where the story shifts into a different mood. This being said, by all means enjoy the story, so far its my favourite, for its tone, and overall shift into a more adult-style read. And for all of you, who do read the story for a nostalgic purpose, number three will fill your needs.**_

_Note: recommended you listen too 'saviour'- by thirty seconds to mars, suits this story perfectly ___

**Prologue:**

The cold room was doused in darkness; the blackness haunted the room with its ever-present melancholy. In the middle of the room shone a beacon of light, filling the room with its bleached illumination. Around the cold table stood numerous black suited men each with their own brand of presumptuous sneer, what they surveyed was a nervous doctor, and his assistants preening over the grotesque display in front of them. Of what used to resemble a human boy, but was now barely recognizable as anything but a pile of desiccated organs and blood. The lead suited man who wore a long beard and large furry eyebrows broke the silence first

"Tell me, doctors have you found any samples?" the doctor began to nervously ferret around the remains to find something that was clearly not easy to see without searching. After desperately searching for a time in the grotesque remains in front of everyone finally the doctor appeared to find whatever it was he was looking for, he wiped of the copious amounts of sweat off his brow and sighed a sense of relief. He placed the red goo into a small beaker, there was barely more of the conspicuous substance then a fingernails worth. but the reaction from the mysterious men was more then enthusiastic, they all looked around at each other clapping each other on the shoulders and swapping congratulations. the long bearded man stepped forward towards the relived doctor, he placed his hand on the mans shoulder in a congratulatory matter and spoke

"do you, my dear doctor think this will be enough to begin the legion program?" the doctor winced from the hand placed on his shoulders, he turned his attention to his assistants they looked at each other and shrugged, the doctor turned his head to the roof and began to work out a random mathematical problem in his head. After a time he turned his attention to the domineering man near him,

"Yes, yes I do believe it will be enough...I think" the bearded man, clapped his hand and turned his attention to the several other suited men in the room

"Then gentlemen, it is my pleasure to inform you that the legion program has begun!" the suited men all looked at each other with malicious glazes and began to file out of the room. All that was left was the grotesque carcass of a body and a nervous doctor to clean up.

CHAPTER 1

Happy beginnings

It was a happy trip, the holidays had only just begun and as it was, I had just got off the plane from Canada and still had not mustered to do anything but recoil the events that had just happened a week ago. I kept retreating into my mind, even more than I used too. The Problem was I couldn't help myself, I had so much to think about that it totally distracted me from my usual surroundings, that of my friends, and the usual droll rolling of comments, and my celebrity status that I had gained since winning the schools hero duelling competition and of course; saving the school from a certain doom from the evil Simkin. It was early morning and the sun was only just cascading off the hills around the airport, the flying trashcan behind me was beginning to wind down in into its temporary death. I took a moment to survey my surroundings, I was in a private section of the Sydney airport and my friends were all around me doing the same. Shane was looking into the distance clicking his fingers, obvious in a vein attempt to get his powers to work, but nobody but me could use their powers outside of the Institute, well anyone but me that is, something I intended to use to my utmost advantage against my secret fight against the organization. Since the incident with The Simkin, Shane's resolve to strengthen his powers had increased almost triple fold, he never wanted what happened to him to happen again, and spent every last minute till we left for Sydney ruthlessly practicing and honing his powers as much as he could. Kyle was sitting on the floor, somewhere near Shane staring intently into the stick of his. Since the Incident Kyle had began to act quite odd, naturally he was still his vibrant self, however he had become a little quieter and in often times a pure recluse, when we found him he was more often the not concentrated on witling a bunch of gibberish on that stick of his, to which had since become overly protective of as well. Adem was more or less the same, he was still his quiet self, however was now doing his best to make me a little happier at every possible point he could think of, it was a little unnerving but I knew he was just showing his appreciation of me. Linda and Leigh had more of less acted the same since the accident, however they did seem to become more interested in each other than the group, and spent more time by themselves then they did before. However of all of us, the person that took it the worst was Nikki she was totally afraid of everything she stared into every shadow searching it for ill intent as if the Simkin still haunted the darkness. Of course it didn't, the Simkin was long gone I couldn't imagine anyone able to survive being torn in half and exploding into nothingness, even if it was that awful Sinder King. Nikki had also become more attached to me, and spent as much time we me as she possibly could which I gathered or at least thought had something to do with protection more then love. But I never minded regardless. I knew she was just scared (I was scared too) but her even more because of the revelation that her father may be the one responsible for all the madness that ensued at that school, all that death all that sadness, and Nikki's dad could be responsible for it all? No wonder she was scared of the future.

We all sat around in the middle of this empty part of this airport waiting for some sort of sign that would indicate where or what we were supposed to do, we had no host to tell us what to do, to my surprise Mr. Jackson stayed back in Canada and went to visit his family. I guess I never really considered the fact Jackson Holmes had a family but naturally he would of had too. It was Kyle that broke our sombre silence as he pried himself away from his precious stick

"Oh my god, when can we leave this stupid airport!" we had been here about half an hour and it truly was becoming quite frustrating waiting here for a sign of something. Nikki pried herself of me and spoke next

"least you guys get to go to this cool happy mansion of yours, I have to...go home" it was quite true Nikki had been doing her uttermost best to avoid the idea of going home, I looked over to her and placed my hand over her cheek, it was as warm and comfortable as it always was.

"Nikki, your coming to my...mansion wow it still feels weird to say that, anyway you don't have to go home till your ready and until then my house is your house till you don't need it anymore Nikki, you know that?" Nikki stared at me for a couple of seconds and silently nodded to me it was Shane who spoke next, he pried his attention off his hands and stared into the direction of the group

"Hey, you know this is the first time we get to see your new mansion rich boy" I smiled to Shane and thought to myself a little, Shane was right this was the first time I got to see my new mansion. And he was even more right, I had since become a millionaire since the hero duelling competition, I had won a million dollars inherited a mansion on the Sydney harbour and even won a curious artefact that had since miraculously brought people back from the dead! It was hard to really imagine the implications all these things would have on my life, truth be told I hadn't had much time to think about it, I was more focused on getting a grasp of the massive scope of my new abilities, and my plans to take down the evil organization. I noticed everybody looking at me waiting for my answer on the question Shane asked,

"Hey yeah, that's going to be really cool! A mansion, wow seems totally surreal doesn't it?" Everyone nodded in agreement and began to talk among themselves until everyone's wrist watches beeped. I still had not got a new one since the incident with the Simkin, nor could they think of a way to attach one to someone who could render himself almost in-tangible at will, It didn't bother me though, I liked the fact I could use my powers outside of the institute and it helped my plans to take down the organization. Nikki's wristband was just under my head so I turned my attention to it "_A car will be here to pick you up shortly to take you to your place of residence" _ I thought to myself how odd it was that I had a new place of residence, it seemed so odd to me. Nevertheless it wasn't long until a black limo drove up to the vacant section of the airport and picked us up. We spent the rest of the drive to my new house talking about all the different possibilities of what it could look like.

CHAPTER TWO

A new home

The car ride stretched on for a while, we went through hills and through the massive cityscape known as the Sydney central business distract. I looked around the tall skyscrapers and imagined myself flying off the building with blood snares, finally being free. Ultimate freedom, after a while we finally made it to our destination. There was a large green planted hedge that served as a gate; it met a white polished pillar that served as the frame to the large black wire gates. The gates opened as soon as we approached them, behind the elegant black wire gate cascaded a beautiful driveway that snaked its way to the house. The gardens around the driveway, was an impressive and amazing landscape of plants and water features, it looked like something that should be listed on some "gardening weekly" magazine. The mansion itself was the most awe-inspiring sight yet. It could have almost been a kilometre long it was a beige cream colour and was adorned with numerous windows all appropriately placed, the sun rolled off the top of the flat roof and I think I even noticed a pool.

The house inside looked like something out of a housing magazine; it was adorned mostly with a beautiful white that looked like it could get dirty just by touching it. The ceiling tapered meters above our heads, and the entrance lobby gave me the impression of a hotel ( not that I had ever really gone to a hotel, or at least remembered it) there was two spiral staircases that leaded to what I had guessed was our rooms. The hallways upstairs seemed to stretch forever, the tiles themselves was an interesting red colour, something like red marble. It was rather hard to take in the fact that this entire house was mine, all this luxury was completely beyond me. I didn't get much more time to take it in because I was interrupted, before me framed by the water feature that stood in the middle of the luxurious stair case was a troupe of suited people they all looked rather formal I guessed they were the house butlers and etc, which in all honesty I didn't expect, the only thing out of place in them was they all had a small bleeding spider icon on their pockets. The one in the front of the troupe, and older man with perfectly formed hair slicked back uniformly spoke

"welcome master Keelan, to the Keelan estate and naturally welcome all guests invited by young master Keelan" all of the suited troupe ahead of me bowed and curtsied retrospectively I smiled and just began to focus on the odd red marbled floor. I was still a little shy about this whole house idea, and them putting it into words just kind of blindsided me. The lead man spoke again

"I see you seemed to be quite interested on this unusual floor." I looked up to say something and was interrupted by Shane

"Yeah, hey what's the deal with this anyway? I mean it looks like marble but its like red…red marble doesn't exist does it?" The lead man stepped forward a little and leant down and ran his finger along the shiny surface.

"Mr. Riddle I imagine?" Shane laughed pointed to himself and went to light his finger into blue flame for his usual theatrics, even though he knew no ones powers wouldn't work. However it suddenly erupted from his fingers singing his eyebrows a little bit the stunned face of Shane was rather hilarious and it sent a cascade of laughter through the rest of us standing, even some of the younger staff behind the lead man lead out a snicker, the lead man smirked and turned his attention back to me when the laughter had died down

"Well, no naturally; red marble doesn't exist in the physical world, but then you children stand in front of me to prove the physical world itself is now indefinite now isn't it? What I'm trying to say master Keelan is: this house upon your winning the cup and your heroic merits afterwards was changed to suit you a little more. You will have to thank your mother for this cute logo she seemed to think that you would need a logo, we of course agreed. Furthermore this is not an ordinary house. Your powers will be activated within the confines here. The manor has special protection in place, so your powers won't hurt it. In fact it will change in a manner to suit them. But I will leave the finer mysteries of this house for you and your friends to discover, oh and I'm peter by the way, I'm your manor caretaker and director" I smiled at peter and began to walk around in a circle taking it in. This amazing house I now owned, naturally it had to be mysterious didn't it nothing could ever be easy in this new world I was in, nor had it been so far. Nikki came up to me and placed her hand on my shoulder and smiled

"Nav this place is great! Its way better than my house and we can use our powers in it too!" I smiled at Nikki; she kissed me on the cheek and ran off the back of the lobby which was almost entirely windows. It overlooked a large grassed area that was fringed with hedges of different shapes and animals. I looked over to Shane and Kyle who were already starting to test out the houses resiliency. Shane had turned a blue fireball onto the floor and began bouncing it into the floor like a basketball, Kyle had turned his stick into a lacrosse stick and was trying to scoop it up with the stick, Linda was concentrating on the flame ball making sure Kyle didn't get it, but it never went were Shane wanted it too and Leigh was next to Adem who was talking to one of the maids about what I had no idea. I was about to go over to Nikki when peter came over to me

"Master Keelan, would it be acceptable for some of our temporary staff to meet you before they leave, you see we are all like you, special but with all very mundane abilities naturally knowing about this special society we all live in we were given the mundane jobs however with well lets so quite non-mundane pay, however furthermore to the point they would just like to meet you, you have become a rather large celebrity in our society of late Mr. Keelan" I nodded and odd smile and stared up into the roof the roof spiralled up into point where it met an impressive chandelier, the chandelier was obviously another of those odd items they had decorated this place to suit me. It was a deep red fringed with black and the metal elegantly bled into tapered crystals of light; it was a rather remarkable piece of work it just went to show the amount of work they put into this amazing house. I couldn't even begin to take in the house let alone the entire prospect of me being even a bigger celebrity, celebrity was so odd to me and yet I had been one almost as soon as I found out I had a power and since I've had no real time to deal with emotion, I wasn't sure if I liked it or hated it. A myriad of different people came and greeted me and shook my hand and consoled with me for a matter of time before they left for the other to meet me. It was more the general matter of: can you really do what they say you can do? Can you show me what you can do? And so on and so forth, I obliged on basic levels contorting my hands into an odd assortment of shapes and varieties. Many of the other stuff began to greet my friends, in particular many of them were interested in Kyle's tail and Shane's flame control and they both seemed to be rather happy to oblige, Shane in particular just seemed glad to the fact that he could use his powers, I guess to Shane a vacation away from his powers was more like a detention, at least to Kyle he still had that stick he had himself glued to most of the time. Peter walked up to me and placed his hands together informatively, you may do as you like now Mr. Keelan, I shall be preparing dinner your mother has told me the kind of food you liked, it will be ready in a couple of hours, till then you may do as you wish. You may use the grass patch outside as a dueling match, there is several protections placed in order for you to do so. We got an adamant order placed to install something upon such lines. Especially for those two" he gestured over to Shane and Kyle who were standing next to the water fountain staring at each other Shane had his fist on fire and Kyle was using the plants next to the water feature to flick water over his flame and put it out. Linda and Leigh had disappeared I guessed to find their room and Adem was watching Shane and Kyle rather intently which what I was guessed trying to absorb their powers temporarily. I laughed and shrugged at peter. Peter smiled and headed off to the right to what I guessed was the kitchen but there was still something bothering me.  
"uh, um…peter?" he smiled and turned back to face me obediently

"Yes sir?" I smiled at him and began to ask him:

"Uh…my mother?" peter laughed and looked at his watch (which resembled our wristwatches but smaller)

"Should be arriving around dinnertime young master, and yes she's doing more than well but I must be off young master will that be all?" I nodded and peter walked off into the other direction to where I had no idea. I decided I would go for a walk outside.

Outside again, was like something out of a gardening scene there was a hedged entrance to a low maze that encircled the wide grassed area that was served as a fighting area. Beyond the hedges and rose bushes was a low white brick fence on top of it was what appeared to be high glass fence and beyond that was a little path and some other pedestrian stuff. And then a wide gaping entity of water, the width of it was beyond me and I imagined it had to be Sydney harbour beyond that was cityscape that I guessed had to be Sydney. It was mind boggling how much this house must of cost.

"Navar, this house is truly amazing is it not?" I looked around and next to me was a large booming shadow I smiled and turned around

"Yeah it's totally amazing, isn't it I mean wow this house is just…wow! What do you think Adem?" Adem was wearing a random black shirt that had gold on it and long black shorts. Adem smiled, nodded and looked around

"It just keeps getting more and more amazing, you turn a corner and there's more to discover. It's like a miniature version of the institute. Tell me Navar what do you think of the renovations they have made?" In truth I wasn't really sure if I liked the odd adaptations they had made on the house, it seemed a little corny and even a little bit morbid. But then I supposed I was a little morbid and corny. I was interrupted by a sound coming from the patch of grass, Nikki, Shane, Kyle and Linda were standing around in a circle all activating their powers. I noticed Linda had changed to when she was using her powers in a full capacity her eyes flowed out with a cool purple light. Shane had his hands on fire and his eyes as well; Nikki was flying a little above everybody else whipping the air with her impressive wings. Kyle was laughing and was using his stick as a make shift sort of pogo stick with vines that were whipping the air. I looked at Adem in an eager manner, he shook his head and headed over to Leigh who had turned into a wolf and was jumping around the manner of hedges in an adventurous fashion. I smiled and fought I would chuck myself into the mix. I cracked my neck and jumped up high. I flipped up high so I was upside down facing everyone else while they were looking up at me. I shot my hand out like a net as I could feel everyone's hearts starting to pump intensely. My net shot out and bent over everyone bringing them all down to a kneeling position until I forgot to manoeuvre and landed square on my back as my net retracted. Kyle was laughing manically and whipped out his stick and flipped it left while a vine whipped out and pushed Shane back down. Nikki whipped up a wind storm of bladed feathers towards Kyle. Kyle cowered a little and brought up a grass shield to protect me

"Everyone here's forgetting what were fighting on!" I was still lying on the grass and I was losing my inspiration to fight rather quickly, naturally it occurred to me we were fighting on grass. I.e. nature so Kyle would have a rather large advantage Kyle brought down the grass shield and swung his hand up, tentacles of grass flew up and grabbed Nikki and Shane trapping them on the ground in a grass hold. I rolled out because Kyle had not noticed me yet, and for some reason I just couldn't be bothered. I noticed a flame aura surrounding one of the grasses holds which I assumed was Shane and the other one was Nikki who was slowly cutting through with her wings. Kyle, Nikki and Shane spent the rest of the day fighting against each other until finally Nikki and Shane ganged up on Kyle and managed to make him subdue when someone almost got a hold of his stick. Out of all of them I was most impressed with Nikki, who was really starting to get a hold of her powers in an offensive fashion.

CHAPTER 3

A mother's acceptance

Dinner was a very joyous affair. We all sat in a large room that was meant only for dining. It had a stylistic gothic feel the walls were a deep maroon with beautiful curtains that were pulled apart to reveal the sun setting upon the cityscape below. The table was a large shiny black table with beautiful large black chairs. We all filed through and found our seats. I sat on the left, somewhere near the middle next to angel, Linda and Leigh sat parallel to me and were both discussing what could possibly be for dinner, Shane and Kyle sat further down parallel to each other facing each other also wondering what could be for dinner Adem sat on the head of the table and was focused on a knife that he was twirling around his fingers with a great amount of skill. Then from where we all entered burst a noise, the noise was followed by a long furry black coated woman. She stood regally and had her chin held high she was wearing a thick pearl necklace and elegant earrings, her face was once of great experience but beheld a new face full of happiness and contentment, it was mum!

"Mum?" mum looked over as she brushed her perfectly straightened hair out of her face.

"Oh my god darling! How are you isn't this whole place amazing!?" my mum ran towards me as she shuffled her legs through that long luxurious coat of hers. This was the first time I really had to think about my mum. I hadn't seen her since, well everything, how much did she know? Did she know anything? I was rather apprehensive, but I accepted her hug regardless there was nothing like a mothers hug to calm everything about me. In her embrace I no longer had to worry about all the responsibility and confusion that came with my powers, I didn't care about my vendetta against the evil organization. Nothing worried me until mum pulled her arms from around me and it was like she pulled the plug in a bathtub and my problems became washing through the hole and consumed me again. My weightlessness was lost and I was returned to my usual self. Mum kissed me on the cheek and took a seat next to right to me, facing Linda and Leigh. She straightened herself up and looked over to me

"Well are you going to introduce me to anyone or just sit there getting lost in your thoughts again?" I coughed a little I was still staring at my mum being completely focused on the change in her it was a totally different woman. Then from the other side of me interrupted another voice

"he does that all the Tim- I mean, err hello Mrs. Keelan" it was nikki she blushed a little and held her hand over her mouth, I guessed she didn't want to make a bad impression on my mother I coughed a little and looked up everyone's attention was now firmly plastered onto my mother nikki and I.

"And you would be ms bennet I presume" Nikki blushed and nodded timidly, my mother laughed and nudged me in the ribs

"And you're other friends dear?" I looked around the room and nodded

"Um ok sitting across from you is Leigh barker" Leigh was wearing his usual attire of some random black band shirt and black jeans. He smiled his white teeth at my mother and anxiously put out a hand to shake my mother's hand

"Uh hello Mrs. Keelan, like Nav said I'm Leigh nice to meet you" my mother nodded at him and shook his hand agreeably

"Good afternoon Leigh, firstly can you please not refer to my son as…'Nav' anytime in my presence I didn't name him…'Nav' his name is Navar! But that's beside the point my dear it's very nice to meet you, tell me what can you do?" Leigh was still stunned from being told off for calling me "Nav" let alone more stunned that my mother knew that we all had "unusual" powers. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the whole idea of my mum knowing we had powers, let alone exhibition them. I looked at mum as to say "you know about that?" but she was still focused on Leigh. Leigh stammered on a little until he finally answered the question

"Oh uh yeah, I can well I can sort of do animal stuff! Uh kind of…it's hard to explain!" it was quite funny to see Leigh stumbling on his words he was usually so cool calm and collected, I spied Linda laughing a bit under her breath. My mother tapped his hand in appreciative manner and continued

"The power of animals that's very interesting! And who is this lovely young lady next to you?" Leigh nodded and turned his attention to Linda, I was about to introduce her when Linda spoke up for herself. She was wearing black pants and random tight black shirt with a red scarf. She smiled and leant forward with a generous smile shook my mother hand

"This lovely woman is Linda, Linda Jackson…wow so you're Navar's mum it's so totally cool to meet you!" my mum smiled and chuckled a little, she took Linda's hand and shook it warmly

"Hi Linda, I'm Sheryl and what can you do?" Linda smiled and focused on some of the shiny coloured pebbles that were sitting in one of the arrangements on the table. She looked over to Shane for a split second and snuck him an evil glare as if to say "don't you dare do anything" Shane faked a hurt expression and turned his attention to the pebbles. They floated up into the room and drifted over to mum. They beautiful pebbles span around mum in a circle creating a fine display of skill. Mum seemed to enjoy it immensely until Linda returned the pebbles to their arrangement. Afterwards she looked quite pleased with herself. Mum congratulated her on her fine display of skill and turned her attention now to Nikki; she smiled at her and spoke

"And you must be young Nikki, and to answer your question, yes my son has always drifted into his thoughts all the time, but given his…history you can hardly blame him. Anyway my dear what can you do?" Nikki blushed a little and leant forward a little past me so she could see my mother, she was quite obviously still rather nervous, she was wearing a white mini skirt with a blue singlet top with her hair cascading over her perfect shoulders.

"Oh uh yeah hi Mrs. Keelan, I mean Sheryl I um I can fly…I grow angel wings and err I can like heal people a little and yeah some other stuff…" I laughed a little inside Nikki was so nervous it was really starting to show, I could almost see her hitting herself inside of her mind. My mum smiled and responded quickly

"You can grow angel wings? That's absolutely amazing! You will have to show me one day dear." Nikki nodded obediently and returned to her seat in a sign of relief. My mum looked towards me in a stern fashion

"And you're other friends?" I looked over to Shane, Kyle and Adem. Shane was looking over with a little amount of interest he was wearing black jeans and his favourite shirt which was a long sleeve shirt which had a blue flame edging along the bottom of the shirt and around the hood of the shirt. Kyle had taken his attention away from his precious stick that he was carving more gibberish into with one of the butter knifes and was bobbing up and down in anticipation, obviously waiting to be introduced to my mother he was wearing a white shirt with another random logo on it with blue jeans that were about two sizes to big for him, and Adem was looking over with a warm smile belying his generous and kind eyes and was still wearing the clothes he was before. I stammered a little bit and pointed at Shane first

"um the guy with the black parted hair is Shane" it was at this point I noticed that Shane had since extinguished his hair, it actually looked rather strange I was so used to seeing his hair on fire, it looked strange sitting there normally, especially since the incident in the institute his resolve to strengthen his powers had almost triple folded. Mum nodded and leant forward a little bit

"Hello Shane, how are you? And what can you do dear?" Shane almost looked hurt for a little bit but smiled, it was still that odd duality that Shane had, and he was always so shy when he wasn't using his powers. He smiled and waved his hand and let his finger light up into a gentle flame. A streak of flame streamed towards one of the flowers in the centre of the centrepiece the flame rapped around the centre flower and coated it and matched its contour and shape until it simply resembled a blue flamed rose, Shane smiled and turned his attention to my mum

" hi and um yeah I'm ok, as far as my power goes I can control flame, my body seems to naturally produce the method to manufacture that blue flame you see there, but beyond that I can control and sort of flame in any which way I want…well I guess so anyway." My mum smiled and turned her attention away from the remarkable rose in front of her.

"That…Shane is truly impressive, well done!" she turned to me again and I pointed next to Kyle was almost standing up he was so excited.

"The…energetic one is Kyle" my mum pushed her head a little to turn and face Kyle because he was behind Nikki

"Hi Kyle, what can you do dear?" Kyle bounced up a little until he finally calmed down a bit more

"Hello! Uh I can well run really fast and stuff and I have a tail! (He wiggled his tail from out of the back of the chair so mum could see it.) And besides that I can control forms of nature, well for now anyway!" my mum looked at Kyle's tail for quite a time as if she was quite confused by the whole thing. She looked at Kyle with a concerned face

"How does that go through your clothes?" it immediately occurred to me that something as simple as how did Kyle manage to wear clothes when he had a tail never ever seemed to be a question that I should of asked. Kyle frowned a little bit and cocked his head in a slightly shameful fashion

"Oh...scissors mostly" my mum laughed a little then nodded, and could see Kyle didn't get the reaction he wanted from my mother so she continued a little more

"And you said you can control nature? Like, how?" Kyle pulled his head up to reveal a huge smile again. He placed his fingers in a spell like stance and focused his attention to the centrepiece in front of my mum. The flowers that hadn't quite bloomed, opened to reveal to petals of amazing colours, that were totally unnatural that I guessed were obviously Kyle's work the centrepiece now resembled something rather unworldly with alien petals and blue burning flower sitting in the very middle. My mum clapped a little and actually picked off one of the petals which shimmered when she picked it. She looked at me again and I turned my attention to Adem

"And lastly that there is Adem" Adem smiled warmly and lent forward that my mother could get a clear view of him

"It is a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Keelan I'm Adem, Adem Mercan" Adem smiled again and it seemed to please my mother. I imagined Adem would be the kind of good-boy every parent would want their daughter to bring home.

"It is indeed a pleasure to meet you as well Mr. Mercan, tell me Adem what can you do?" Adem smiled weakly and looked at his hands for a little, of all of us Adem seemed to be the least proud of his powers. He always seemed to think that thy were a sort of burden to him, well at least that's what it looked like from the outside

"I Mrs. Keelan am an Empath, meaning more or less that I can absorb other powers, however I really haven't been able to really use it yet…I have no idea how it works." My mum smiled at Adem

"Well Im sure you'll figure it out one day dear" curiously my mum just turned her attention away from me and didn't even bother to ask me what I could do, I wasn't even sure if I was ready to tell her yet. She turned her attention to all of us

"Well… then who here can't wait for dinner!?" And then right on cue the doors behind Leigh and Linda burst open and revealed a food trolley, it had numerous amounts of delectable morsels and tasty treats on the cart. Behind the trolley was a quite pleased peter

"And wait you shan't have to do any longer Mrs. Keelan, ladies and gentlemen dinner is served!" peter ferreted about us unloading all of the food off the trolley and placing it all around us. Dinner seemed to be a beautiful roast chicken with all the usual trimmings

"Wont you join us peter?" asked Nikki from the side of me my mother nodded in agreement and pushed her finger to a seat next to Leigh. Peter laughed and pulled up a chair

"I had every intention of doing so young lady; however thank you very much for asking in any case" Nikki smiled at me and looked very pleased with herself I gathered she was still trying to get in my mothers good graces, I had no idea what she was so worried about.

Dinner was beautiful and every bit as tasty as it looked. Near the end of it Kyle and Shane were fighting over the last potato that was in front of them, Linda was too busy talking to Leigh and peter to notice. And Adem had since moved next to my mother so he could get a better bearing around the food. I decided I would end the fighting over the potato by grabbing it myself. I leant out and wrapped my hand over the potato. It was warm, well at least I think it was warm, my bodies receptors always felt different since my change. Suddenly I heard a large audible gasp from the room. I didn't know what everyone was so shocked about I looked over and an amazed Shane had stabbed his fork clean through my hand, what was so terrible surely everyone knew this wasn't going to hurt me, everyone had seen me be stabbed and cut by the Simkin, to which were all futile attempts. My mum turned to me and took a deep breath and carefully chose her sentences

"Sweetheart, are you ok?" I didn't see what the problem was. I pulled my hand effortlessly up and over the knife like it was never there I clenched my fist a little because it felt a little metallic, but it dissipated almost instantly, I looked around the room and they were still all staring at me

"What?" most of them shrugged, I guess to them they hadn't really seen the scope of my new powers because since I had done most of the training on my own. And most of them couldn't probably trust there recollections of the battle that went on against the Simkin my mum looked the most shocked. I couldn't stand the shock of them all, I was actually a little appalled I looked at my mum and she merely managed to stammer out un-poignant gibberish. I was now annoyed

"Forget it!" I got out of my chair and stormed out of the room. I couldn't believe their reactions. It was just so…unbelievable I weaved my way up until the roof, that was rather large, It looked like a recreation deck on a boat, and it was a little dark, I looked over the view to cityscape beyond. I started to calm down a little when I was interrupted by a voice.

"Sweetheart?" I looked around it was mum, she approached me cautiously. All my fears about this power had just come to fruition all issues about losing my humanity had just bared themselves to the surface and I was feeling rather vulnerable.

"What mum?" she approached and sat next to me where there was a park bench

"Are you ok?" of course I was ok! I was totally fine, it was everyone's reactions that were the problem! But I really didn't want to yell at my mum

"Yeah…mum, I'm fine" mum looked at the ground and shifted her feet a little bit until she looked up at me

"I'm sorry I reacted like that" I could see true hurt in her eyes, she was a hundred percent serious I decided to forgive her as much as I could

"It's…fine, but why did you react like that, you made me feel weird mum!" mum shook her hair a little and looked back up to me

"Navar, you do realize the last time I saw you was three days after you had just came out of the hospital mysteriously, sure I've been told all these things about you, but to see it, to really see…it was just a shock to me Navar, I've accepted it now" I suppose mum probably was right seeing a fork stabbed through your once terminally ill son and it leaving no effect whatsoever would be a rather large shock to the system.

"Its ok mum, I just guess I wasn't expecting it is all" my mum smiled and got up and hugged me and sat back down

"Is it true; is it true did you do all those things?" I still didn't know what it was my mum knew. I decided now was probably more than a good time to tell you

"Well, what do you know?" mum placed her hands on her legs and looked up to the stars for a little bit

" A…Horatio gast called me a month or so ago and told me of all the wonderful things you did for that institute and how you saved all those people, and how you had won this house and the money grant." I smiled a little; of course the professor would have called my mother. He was always so prepared for every situation naturally he wouldn't forget my mother, it also explained how she knew about us all, I imagine the professor would of given her a briefing on all of my friends. I smiled to my mum a little

"Yeah, mum…I did, but it was well I dunno mum, it was just a whole different place" my mum smiled and stared into the cityscape a little more

"You know, you have grown into an amazing person Navar, after all you have gone through and still your brilliant personality shines through every time. I love you sweetheart, your father would be proud" my mum actually mentioned my father; she never talked about my father, ever. And I had never really asked, mostly because I never really wanted to know about a man that wasn't there to help me, it seemed like asking for bad news and I never needed more bad news in my old life. Perhaps now mum would talk about my father for once, I think I was also ready to know the truth

"Mum…could you tell me about my father?" mum stared at the ground for a little bit. And shook her head

"Not tonight Navar…I've already got too much to process, can we please leave it for tomorrow?" I sighed and nodded, this was just another time I wasn't going to find about my father, how horrible could it be? Mum got up and went to walk down to the stairs until she turned to me

"Oh Navar do you know what the date is" I silently shook my head, I truly had no idea

"It's the 22nd of December Navar, which means two days till Christmas, I want a present Navar Keelan!" I smiled at mum and looked out to the cityscape. Beyond the roof, I went inside I was tired I found my room, the only room that was reserved specially for me, it was a large master bedroom. It had a raised bed in the middle that looked almost larger than a king size, it was draped with blood red curtains around the bed posts. On one side was a room which I guessed led to the bathroom? I walked into the walk in wardrobe that was big enough to be a room. And I couldn't be bothered putting my clothes up so I just through them onto the floor, I crawled into my bed and slept almost instantly dreaming about my father and what things Christmas will bring.

CHAPTER 4

A Christmas presence

My dreams tonight, were different that was at least they felt different. There was an indiscernible new air to the dreams that haunted me that night. There was a dark hallway that stretched on for a limitless amount that I could not ascertain it was dark and there was an omnipresence of evil that emanated from the air itself, along this path there were challenges laid upon me like obstacles I saw myself a shining black shadow, spiky and evil stabbing and hitting away everything I loved. Pushing them away and out of this snake like hallway, as this black shining visage of me stretched yearningly to be free of this gauntlet and reach its end, my every part of this odd being wanted it, and needed it. And with a shock affront my world turned white I was back, I was me. Well at least, as much me as I had been since my incident back at the institute. I awoke as I always did with my aura of lightness, as my body felt as it was almost hardening around itself, but my attention was distracted the reason for what woke me from my curious but haunting dream however, soon revealed itself. It was kovu; he meowed and whipped his tail against my exquisite bedpost as it curved intricately around its wooden grooves to meet its end joining the top of the bed, and the cascading beautiful maroon curtains that parted to reveal the sunlight that parted in. Kovu meowed and moved forward to greet me with much joy. I had not seen Kovu since I had made it to this wonderful mansion, however upon kovu's travel to me something crunched under his foot, it was thin and paper-like I got up and stretched over kovu to find out what it was, kovu moved off the paper and began to coil himself around my arm bemusedly, what was once under kovu's foot now revealed itself to be a paper, a newspaper to be exact, however it was not any newspaper I had seen before, this one was different the ink itself seemed to demand my attention, and the large demanding text up the top read "the future press" there was many advertisements eschewed upon the page, but there on the front page was a photo of me, of me! I don't remember the photo been taken, but it appeared to be sometime after my win after my battle with the snake faction. The title read:

"A tragedy averted, a hero founded"

_the story, at the institute the place reserved those new to the god sent gene appears to be that of a tragic one, details are scarce as none of the faculty members have been able to give details, however a scarce statement was issued by the illustrious professor gast, who's insurmountable gifts to god-sent kind are beyond the need for naming. The statement is as continues "a terrible tragedy has happened today, by no faults but our own ignorance. The rouge (whom appeared to act on his own) has been suppressed yet by the valiant attempts of Navar Keelan and I am therefore glad to submit to you that all, even against considerable odds, is well. It seems from what our sources can gather, there was a mysterious altercation within the confines of the illustrious institute, all however was surpassed by the attempts of the so far unknown "Navar Keelan" parents and public are concerned with what happened, such public outcry has reached deaf ears however there has been certain leads to be followed by the "house of m's" investigation team. However more enthralling is the future of this unknown youth, to who appears to have no god-sent heritage that has rose to beat all odds in an amazing amount of courage and valour. I believe it will be safe to say, we can only expect good things from this…Navar Keelan. _

The newspaper seemed to provide me with nothing more than an odd unsettling feeling in my stomach; I wasn't sure what the cause of it was. Whether it was the acclaims that lay within the newspaper, or all the questions it raised, and even more, for the first time I felt like part of a society, a society I had until now never knew about. But I had no more time to debate this curious piece of paper that lay in front of me because the door across the extensive space my bed stretched to the exit to my room laid beckoned open. Behind it stood the face of peter, he beamed at me as he balanced a tray of food as he walked to me door

"I was wondering if you cared for breakfast young master." I was still not used to having someone dote upon me, and I was not sure I liked it, of course I didn't hate it How could you hate having your needs attended to? No It was the guilty feeling that burned into me when I was helped, I was always used to be doted upon…in the hospital but now, now that I had the ability to do things for myself I always wanted to take the ability to do so. I knew that I was no longer living a dream, which I was suspected I was at first. And I just always felt the need to do, what needed to be doing however this time I left myself be taken by indulgence

"actually yes I was hungry, thank you peter, but please don't call me master, I'm nobody's master" peter opened his eyes in a little admittance of shock, but smiled and nodded to me as he walked to the side of my expansive bed.

"Very well…Navar, is there anything you would care for breakfast in particular?" I looked over to him and tried to think inwards, to let my body ask me if I felt like anything special, my stomach however appeared to be indifferent so I shook my head and indicated that I as well was indifferent. Peter positioned the food table over my lap; it contained toast, bacon, eggs and all the other delectable trimmings of an excellent breakfast. I set to eating my breakfast and peter smiled and went to take his leave. But I still had questions and I really wanted them to be answered, perhaps I thought to myself peter may be able to shed light on some of them

"Uh…peter?" I said with a mouth still full of succulent bacon, peter turned round and faced me smiling obediently. I turned my glaze the mysterious paper that had been placed upon my bed, I pointed to it

"What is that?" Peter's eyes glanced over the paper, in a curious and indifferent glance; he cocked his head and began to answer

"That is an edition of the future press" I was guessing that peter did not know that, I did not know what the future press was, I pressed further

"And what is "the future press" peter?" Peter looked down onto the bed, and eventually he finally appeared to get it

"Hmm… I should of imagined that you would not indeed know what "the future press" is, the future press Navar, it is a publication meant only for us, the society of the god sent, that particular copy was saved by your mother who asked that I show it to you" again, the notions that I was a part of a society, a society different to the one just under a year ago I was indeed a part of, a society that now referred to me as some sort of prodigal son. I screwed up my face in a confused fashion and looked up again at peter

"My mother asked you to show me?" peter nodded and stared at the plate of food I had not finished, he pulled it off of me and to the side, as he strode to my wardrobe

"yes, your mother will not be home today she is off with a luncheon, your mother it seems has become quite the socialite since her move into god sent society" I said it through my mind again trying to asses it from different angles… "god sent society" it still seemed all so strange, and even more the amazing amount of change my mum had shown within herself as if this happy buoyant person was always bubbling below the surface waiting for her chance to truly reveal herself. I recalled in my mind the first day I had been introduced to this whole uncanny concept, and the time when I was given my wristwatch for the first time, that wristwatch that was linked with all the dismay that was caused by the malicious Simkin, the watch that read the inscription "for those god sent" it only now made more sense than it ever did, those, me and all of my friends who were…special were called "godsents" I had sometimes wondered what the correct term to refer to myself actually was, I had however always imagined something along the lines of "mutant" or "hero" not something as prestigious as "godsent" however it did imply a certain sense of pride into me. I looked to peter who was busying himself with a gold pocket watch I paused a little then asked him a question

"Peter what is the House Of M?" Peter took his gaze off his pocket watch and turned to face me; he smiled indifferently and in an airy uncaring tone answered

"Why the head of it all, the ministerial order unto which we are all governed" I thought about it again, even more insurmountable evidence that I was part of a new society for some reason the whole idea of being a part of a society weighed upon my mind, I wasn't sure why, was it the renewed sense of belonging? Or was it this coiled snake of guilt in my stomach that wormed through my mind as I thought about my plans about destroying the organization, however my guilty conscious seemed to strengthen my resolve, if there truly was such a society then they too would benefit from the destruction of the insidious organization. I dismissed peter after he showed me my unpacked contents of my suitcase in my wardrobe. I glanced at the newspaper, I wanted to keep it. It helped me strengthened my resolve to help everyone plagued by the plans of the insidious organizations, who's evil plans were sure to creep around to affect everyone in there own due time, whether or not if it was now or fifty years. My encounter with Simkin had showed that they had infallible patience. Patience that I intended to use against them, however I pushed my mind into the present, I flung my finger at the paper it followed suit instantly stretching beyond the gap with a glutinous red goo, that could be as hard as any metal and as intangible as water. I thrust the paper to the wall near my door several meters away I used the goo to fix the paper to the wall and to my surprise it followed suit instantly I was rather pleased with myself as I turned my attention to the now running water of the shower.

The hallway from my bedroom was different somehow, somehow that it wasn't instantly recognizable to me until I was travelling down on of the two spiralled staircases that led to the unusual, yet beautiful red marble floor. There it stood like a solemn statue yet emanating a sense of happiness purely from its being there it was a Christmas tree, and now it occurred to me the difference the house had now taken. Everywhere there hanged Christmas decorations bestowing upon the house an omnipresence of festivity, how odd I thought to myself that simple objects can bestow a sense of joy and hope simply from there being there. I stared at the tree as it I was sure it was facing me. Until I heard a tap on the floor, It was not human because the steps were in to rapid succession I had need only delve into my senses the fraction more for me to truly see the presence that stalked besides me, however I trusted it to be friendly and let it approach within its own means, something black and long haired bounded up near the tree as is skidded to a holt, it appeared to be some sort of wolf, however it was no normal wolf, its hair was long and jet black and shone unusually in the morning light as if the light was a burden upon its perfect fur, its eye demanded a presence of its own, penetrating and almost as red as the floor it was sitting on. However the dog did not lunge, nor show any presence of evil, it stood and stared at me panting simply when it needed to however not breaking my gaze

"Good morning Leigh" I remarked with as much cool and unwavering demeanour I could muster, the dog in front of me hung its eyes apparently unpleased by my remarks and began to transform in front of my eyes, transform into the usual stocky but muscular visage of Leigh barker. Leigh laughed at me and turned his attention to the Christmas tree

"Didn't even know it was Christmas, did you?" I shook my head, I truly did not know it was Christmas, nor did I before now ever regard it with any sense of special regard, in the hospital it was still just another depressing day compounding upon my calamity that was a life. But now, now in front of me stood something different, a shining beacon of new life that was represented by every spindle of the green Christmas tree in front of me. I smiled again letting its unseen warm energy feel me with joy until I was interrupted by other voiced behind me

"Wow, its Christmas? I totally forgot!" who proclaimed with buoyant energy as he sped up to look at the tree as well, in his left hand he clutched (as he had always did) his stick, however it was starting to look less and less like a stick and more like some sort of ritualistic war staff. The voice came next from Shane's as he crawled up from his room somewhere near the underground rooms of the mansion, curiously as the rest of us chose rooms with views up the top of the house, Shane had chosen a room in the lowest point he could find. I made a note to myself to question him about this curiosity; Shane spoke as he walked closer to the tree

"Wow I totally forgot it was Christmas!" Shane looked over at me, Kyle and Leigh as I said this for an answer but none was given as we all stood before the mammoth tree that was erected in front of us. Linda and angel were next as they (assisted by Linda) glided directly off the top of the stairs and met us at the bottom. Nikki's warm gentle arms careening around my side as she pulled me into the bliss of a hug, a one beautiful hug. I turned to look at everyone as they were addressing the tree with such reverence Nikki was wearing black three quarter jeanss with frayed edges and a tight low cut top that had blue and white stripes on it. Linda was wearing her usual black pants with a black singlet that seemed to emulate what Leigh was wearing, which was essentially the same thing minus some spike bands on Leigh's wrist. They smiled at each other and drew into an embrace as they gazed upon the tree. Kyle was wearing long grey shorts that had an orange stripe down them, with a plan shirt, Shane however seemed to dress as if it was still winter was wearing black jeans that almost seemed to be tethering from over wearing and a red shirt that billowed around his larger but muscular frame. From the kitchen emerged Adem who revered the tree silently as he stepped into the semi circle with a gentle smile saying nothing. And there we all were mesmerized by the simple sight of a Christmas tree. It could have been seconds or hours until Shane broke the silence, I wasn't sure

"Would anyone like the tree to be on fire, cool fire of course!" there was a disgusted sigh from what I was sure was Linda and a consensual clamour of disagreement Shane got the general idea and coolly backed off the subject. begrudgingly it was Kyle who spoke next

"I'd say I could make it grow bigger, but I dunno seems big enough already doesn't it?" Kyle's question appearing to fall onto deaf ears as nobody replied. We all were still standing around this Christmas tree all of us for no unspoken reason were completely mesmerized by it. It was Nikki who next interrupted out mesmerized silence

"hey guys, if its Christmas…we should get each other presents!" naturally she was right, I thought to myself that I always thought she was right, I was more than probably a bias opinion but I didn't care. The chance to get presents seemed to me to be a brilliant distraction, everyone agreed that we should all spend the day shopping for presents for each other

"I don't want anyone to get me anything too expensive please" I asked everyone Shane laughed and joked back to me

"Yeah well I expect something good from you rich boy" I snuck Shane a glance of humorous contempt as Shane made a blue flame dollar appear just above his finger. I ignored it and walked into the dining room where an uninterested peter was reading a paper which appeared to be of normal origin and spooning in some breakfast cereal. This for some reason seemed to be unusual behaviour for a butler but as peter had told me on several occasions, he was no ordinary butler. Peter smiled and folded up his paper as we all entered. After we all sat down it was Linda who spoke first seeking approval from someone I was not sure we needed approval from.

"Uh peter, we were wondering if we could go and get everybody presents, you know for Christmas? Would that- that be ok" peter smiled, rather confusedly at Linda and simply nodded before answering

"Most certainly, you are all not prisoners of this house, most defiantly not you are free to come and go as your would please. However as you would know your powers would be of no use to you outside the confines of this manor, to all however you Mr. Keelan whom I will just have to ask out of the strictest confidence I can muster, to please do not use your powers outside of the house" I nodded to peter, I really had no use nor desire to use my powers outside of the house, as of yet anyway. Everyone seemed rather pleased at the prospect of the coming shopping excursion and paraded around ideas and places to go. I who had never left the hospital in all my memory before I was six; had no idea where anything would not be nor did I have any idea where anything would be, I simply nodded. My friends knowing this fact filled me as best they could. We spent the rest of the day discussing such and play fighting with Shane before I consented to going to bed early I was ready for my shopping trip tomorrow.

CHAPTER 5

A society lost

It was the same, the same odd dream of me fighting my way through a mysterious corridor, to try and obtain something, something I had no idea what it was. But I had no more time to delve myself into this odd dream because daylight was rushing through my vision and soon I was awake. The same soft and hollow feeling emanated through my body for a few seconds before it felt like it should have. I expected to find Kovu again, it was more often then not Kovu who woke me, but it wasn't. I looked around my bed I was still a little dazed from being woken up on the end of my bed was a smiling Nikki, I was a little shocked, I smiled at her as she seemed to be busting to tell me something

"Good morning stranger" she gestured to me, I looked around the room to see if she was talking to anybody else, there was nobody, in this large overly expansive room of mine except me and her, and to myself in my inner most thoughts, I couldn't imagine it being exactly how I would want it to be. I pushed myself up in the bed to get a better vantage of Nikki, she looked stunning, all she was wearing was silk pyjamas but she still looked amazing. She got up out of the bed and started bouncing around excitedly I looked upon her in a confused sort of way, lord knows I was still completely retarded when it came to any sort of social or girlfriend issue. I punched myself in my head as I was still watching Nikki bouncing on the spot, until she stopped and placed her hands on her hips and looked at me rather un-amused

"Are you going to tell me you're just going to sit there and not ask me why I'm jumping on the spot? Oh god Navar Keelan you are such a social retard!" I was so shocked at the abruptness of the comment and looked up a Nikki a little hurt

"Hey…thanks a lot! I think I needed that, you know good wake up and all!" She just smiled and kicked me playfully with her outstretched leg. She began to walk around my room with her arms outstretched evidently to take in its sheer size and overburdened luxury

"So this is where you have been sleeping hey?" I nodded to her as I got out of my bed to join her

"Yeah, peter said that this room was reserved for me, you know me owning this house and all?" Nikki smiled back at me as I was walking over to her

"Don't get cocky Navar Keelan" I shook my head as I grabbed her hand

"Oh defiantly not!" I smiled to her as I pulled her into me. Finally something I at least think I knew a little about. Her arms felt as warm and as at home as they always did. And her lips felt like my body had gained a new sense. When suddenly she pushed me off and shook her head, I was shocked and a little embarrassed I hung my head and blushed a little

"That wasn't why I came in this room, and don't get me wrong there can be plenty more of that later…plenty more but Nav check this out!" she was back to me as I started smiling and wiped off my hang dog expression.

"Don't get any ideas ok?" I smiled at her and shook my head; I really had no idea, what I was supposed to be getting ideas about. Until Nikki's shirt began to slowly fall off her shoulders, I couldn't stop myself from getting ideas, my brain began to flood with indecent ideas I tried to shrug them off but what I guessed was my heart was beating faster and faster to each inch her top fell down her body. The top had fallen to the floor, what stood in front of me was her perfect back it curved up it was a couple of shades darker than white, pure. A perfect tan, a perfect girl. She turned around and I could see her arms folded over her chest, my head rushed with more ideas, more feelings I was overwhelmed in so much I couldn't understand. My head was actually hurting my face was getting hot I guessed I was blushing Nikki looked at me and spoke

"Oh Navar will you focus! Boys honestly…" I was indeed trying to; I was doing the best I could to focus. But it was irrelevant when I still didn't know to what I was supposed to be focusing on. Until from her back folded two massive angel wings, they were feathery and sliced the air with their bladed feathers as they stretched out over the massive room, and then something different, from lower in nikki's back grew two more wings, smaller and more diminutive and growing into more of a point than their larger counterparts

"See, I grew new wings Nav! New ones and I think two more are going to grow too, look see the bump?" Sure enough in the area between her perfect butt and the other wings with two small bulges sticking out of her back

"Wow nikki that's really cool!" she smiled and turned around wrapping her wings around her body so she could free up her arms. I pouted

"No fair!" she chuckled a little and stretched out for her shirt, but I was two fast for her, somehow just Nikki's presence seemed to strengthen my powers, but I just put it down to merely me adoring her presence so much. I shot out a snare from my wrist and pushed the shirt to stick on top the roof, several meters higher than we were. She looked at me and frowned a little

"Oh Navvy grow up" I smiled and laughed a little

"I bet you want that shirt don't you?" Nikki was still trying to act annoyed but I could see her holding back the smile that was behind the demeanour

"Ok that's it mister!" I smiled back at her as she turned around in the spot letting on wing fly out, I sensed it, seconds before it happened but I just didn't expect danger to be coming from Nikki. I really needed to trust my new body more, because without hesitation a large over a meter long steely wing came crashing upon my chest, it felt as hard as iron bridge but as delicate as a feather pillow. I flew across the room and landed on my bed I slid across the sheets and my leg sent out a snare around bed post to keep me from sliding more. Next thing I noticed was a beautiful topless angelic figure coming to land upon me

"Did you know there's like a whole like newspaper dedicated to us, well you know…'us'" nikki smiled at me with a rather confused look

"Yeah of course, I've always read "the future press" haven't you?" I shook my head; it was so infuriating being so ignorant to a society I was now a part of albeit even a celebrity of. I looked over to everybody we were all standing in the front of the house waiting for a car to pick us up. The gardens out the front were still amazingly beautiful and looked as if I was staring into a magazine photograph. The only thing that made me think otherwise was the changing and morphing vines and branches that were stretching in different shapes. Obviously this amazing feat of well, nature belonged to Kyle who was trying to amuse himself while waiting for the car, next to Kyle was Shane who was talking to Adem about something, but nevertheless a plume of flame was whisking around Shane's finger as he was talking. Leigh was still inside to what I was assuming was the toilet. Nikki was beside me but doing something with her mobile. Linda came up to the side of me as she was watching Kyle.

'Morning Navvy!" I looked over to her, she was wearing black volleys with her white socks pulled up, a red tartan mini skirt and a black long sleeve shirt that had some random logo on it, however her hair was a little different this morning, it was still its normal –about shoulder length hair- but now it had some green streaks in it. I looked up at the hair and curiously surveyed it for a while

"New hair Linda?" Linda smiled as she ran her hands through it

"Yep! You like it? I kind of guessed it was time for a change, I guess" she smiled and went to say something more and noticed Leigh was exiting the house and nodded me off and went to go say something to her. I shrugged to myself. And then for no particular reason other than to break the monotony of waiting for the car I flipped backwards and landed just above the wall facing myself over the garden. I looked down at everybody who was no all facing me after my odd random act of spontaneity

"And what, Navar Keelan was the point of that?" said Adem in his usual odd caring but formal tone. I shrugged back to him

"I dunno I was sick of waiting for the car." And there was a couple of shrugs as everyone else started to take my lead. Shane started to fly up to where I was and hovered near me, Kyle used the hedge that framed the door as a sort of crude seat as he took a seat next to me as well. My hands were starting to feel hard and brittle, I felt like I was becoming part of the wall. And then the gate beyond the gardens parted and a sleek black limousine revealed itself. I flipped my legs out from where I was standing and then pushed off with my arms into a somersault and landed perfectly next to nikki who only muttered something under breath like "show-off" I smiled back at her as Shane began to float down, Kyle however was enjoying his odd plant-seat a little to much and made the seat stretch all the way to the door as if he was an invalid. The car was bigger than it appeared to be, but I gave it no quarter, simply good car making I imagined. The driver turned around to the group of us and addressed as all when we were all piled in

"Good morning everybody, right then shopping then it is?" I had no time, nor do I think did anyone nor Kyle with his super speed, before Linda answered the question, naturally taking lead of the situation again I personally didn't mind I rather found it quite an admirable quality.

"Yes absolutely, I assume you have been told the details?" the driver seemed to be a little affronted by the bluntness of the answer however smiled indifferently and followed to answer

"Absolutely young madam, however all be known that your powers won't work once we leave the gates." There was a murmur of disappointment among all of us, all but me because I knew that I could use my powers outside of the house, simply because they had not thought of a way to fit me with a wristband that I could not shed, more over both the professor and Jackson Holmes seemed to trust me not to do so anyway. However considering we were in the confines of the car I spent the rest of the trip teasing a rather down heartened Shane with my ability to use my powers.

We arrived at the expansive mall about half an hour later, however I wasn't sure of the time it took, nor did I care. The driver let us out to find a park and said that he would be able to contact us through our wristwatches if he needed us and us vice versa by tapping it twice. It was as I remember my first time in a mall, except this one made a little more sense, but was now absolutely crawling to the seams with people. Nikki explained this to me because people never seemed to buy Christmas presents until the very last minute. I couldn't help but look upon everybody as if I was looking through a microscope; these people all these people walking around ferreting about frantically with their own business. Were no longer my people, I did not belong to these people, I was of a different society now albeit completely the same on the outside with similar characteristics but nevertheless different. I found it a bit down heartening looking at all these people with there normal lives, all these lives I could never be a part of. But I didn't mind, I really didn't because my life as I saw it was better than there is. Would any of these people truly know the evil that grew around them? Would my vendetta against the evil organization ever affect these people, will they ever know what my sacrifice would give them? I pushed it to the back of my brain again, now was not the time to be thinking of this, and now was the time to be enjoying myself

"So where should we go first?" asked Linda to us as she spoke over there crowd she looked first at me, I had no idea where to go, hell I didn't even know where we were I shrugged at everyone and naturally we all looked at Linda for group leadership

"Oh so now I'm needed!" played Linda as she put her hands over her hips Adem stepped forward and proceeded to ask Linda a question

"How are we going to buy presents for everyone when some of us don't even have any money?" this was a good question, many people here didn't have any money, most hadn't even gone home yet, to be exact no one had gone home yet, difference was some of us didn't even have anywhere to go, naturally however I had money

"Hey guys how about if I give everyone three hundred dollars towards the presents, so least we can all get everybody something!" there was a couple of stunned faces around the group, I however didn't understand the problem, money was a new thing to me. I never had any money before I didn't really know how to deal with the money at the moment; I didn't understand what the problem was

"You would do this Navar Keelan?" I nodded at Adem I still didn't understand what the problem was

"What is everyone's problem its just money?" everyone looked at me, I guess I said it a bit louder than I really should of

"I guess were all just a bit shocked, its nice is all" exclaimed Kyle as he stepped in front of me

"Hey I got no problems, seriously…I don't have that much money at the moment anyway since dad's in America" said Shane as he rubbed his hands together greedily as I rolled my eyes

"Ok so who wants money" Shane and Kyle hastily stepped up. Adem asked me profusely if it was ok before he finally accepted. Linda and Leigh also accepted begrudgingly and oddly Nikki told me she didn't need it

"You don't need the money?" I asked Nikki, Nikki smiled at me and shook her head cutely

"Navvy I probably have more money than you gorgeous" I screwed my face up in a slightly confused sort of way. I wasn't sure if she was playing with me or just teasing me.

"Yeah, uh right. So how are we going to do this?" we all looked at each other and shrugged, it was fifteen minutes into our excursion to this mall, we were still standing around near the entrance watching a cavalcade of different people walk past us, all those lost people of that now lost society.

"I think we should split up, there's no point in buying presents for each other if were all together" I supposed this made sense, I couldn't think of any better ideas so I just went along with it

"So like meet back here in say an hour?" asked Leigh. Linda checked her watch and looked around at everybody else

"That sound good everybody?" everybody nodded and went there separate ways, great now because of that idea I was left in this massive shopping all by myself, I had no idea where to go nor did I have any ascertainable idea of what I was going to get anyone. I was turning the corner and about to head up to the escalators, I saw Adem skulking into one of the bigger department stores. Leigh and Linda looked like they were staying together and were heading off the way of the food court. Kyle and Shane were close by each other but seemed to be entering different shops that appeared to be some sort of variety store. Well at least it seemed like they all had an idea were they were going, good great for them. Then while I was on the escalator I heard a voice behind me

"Navvy wait up!" I looked behind me climbing the escalators was nikki, she was wearing tight black jeans and a green top that was high cut to show off her mid drift area, I suddenly had the urge to stop everyone who was looking at her, and I could tell there were some people especially some younger jock looking kids who were travelling down the escalators because their heart rates were rising rather fast, It was rather daunting being able to listen to everybody's blood flow around me, even more the ability to control it was an even more daunting task. I had little more time to think about as I was ripped out of my blood sense when Nikki came by

"And where do you think your going?" I looked at her a little bit puzzled

"Um shopping?" she laughed a little as we stepped off the escalator

"And you didn't wait for me why?" I looked at her even more puzzled, was there some sort of 'girlfriend' rule I had forgotten here?

"We were supposed to seperat-" I responded, but I was cut off as she pouted as she and put her hands over her hips. Her perfect hips

"Nav, I'm your girlfriend you dope, I'm supposed to come with you, its like part of the rule! Linda and Leigh were together weren't they?" I was still a little confused, and I also felt quite embarrassed. Embarrassed again, I was always embarrassed when it came to my idiotic and completely retarded sense of anything to do with social needs

"Girlfriend rule?" I questioned, Nikki began to look a little flustered

"Oh no you do not get to act dumb again! Oh it doesn't matter, where you want to go first? Should we get Linda's present first? Or maybe Shane's? " I shrugged to her as I grabbed her hand, at least I knew how to do something properly

" I dunno nikki, its up to you why don't we just find the biggest store we can find and see if we can knock them all off in one go?" nikki smiled at me evilly as she placed her finger in the air

"And that Navar Keelan is finally sense coming through!" I smiled; it was finally good to actually appear to get something right. We were about to head off when Nikki's phone rang she put up her hands as in to indicate "wait a minute" I stood a little further away and looked over the balcony still looking over the mass of people. I think I even saw Kyle at one point walking out of some card shop. I decided to delve into my senses I looked into my mind and pushed myself into my body that one extra fraction, it was like opening a door to a new world where I could see everything, and hear everything. It was truly overwhelming. Before when I used my blood suit I at least had something to focus on, a least a way to get my hands around the idea of grasping something, now it was like dipping my toe into a lake, a lake I could almost swear I could drown in. my senses were moving outwards like a radar, until I started to hear the end of Nikki's conversation on the phone

"No, yeah. No that's fine. No, yeah sure ok. Um ok, yeah, sure see you soon." She hung up the phone and bit her lip a little hey eyes seemed to show a lot of emotion at once and her heart was rapidly beating faster, and then the person next to hers began to beat as well, and then more voices, and more voices. More hearts pounding against my head, I couldn't stand it, I pulled the sense in and it was like ripping my head out of a freezing cold bath, and suddenly my senses were as they were usually heightened, albeit highly above normal human levels but at least highly manageable state. Nikki walked up to me, she looked a little down heartened, which was strange because she was normally so happy, and come to think of it she was always happy. That was quite odd I thought to myself, however I don't think I would want nikki any other way, I loved her just the way it was, least I thought it was love but then what could love be other than this? This happy ecstatic giddy feeling coming from just being with someone.

"Hey Nav that was my parents…" Nikki had been dreading the idea of her parents ever since the amazing revelation (that I thought was a lie) that Nikki's dad was a part of the evil organization, she was avoiding her parents ever since, she text them and got told that she was staying at my house now for some reason, I personally had no idea what that reason was I never really bought up the idea of her parents to her, it was such a touchy subject as was nearly everything to do with the incident I think that thought we were all ok on the outside everybody was still trying to deal with what happened back at the institute. Nikki's eyes were becoming a little teary

"Your parents hey, what did they want?" she tried to shrug it off indifferently, but in the back of my mind, in that door that opened to my omni sense I could feel her heart still beating erratically

"Well, mostly they were just worried about me is all, and like its Christmas and all you know" I nodded back to her, as I grabbed her hand to comfort her. Whatever the possibility of what her parents were now was not the time to discuss them

"Well that doesn't seem that bad, they just care is all. Did that want anything else?" She nodded as she started to straighten herself up

"Um actually yeah they want me to come home for dinner tonight. Nav I don't think I can do this alone, can you come with me?" I was still two minds about this I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do. The idea of meeting Nikki's parents absolutely terrified me, however the idea of meeting someone potentially in the organization made that coiled up snake in my stomach absolutely revel in the potential leads I could gather, this evil pit in my stomach that was keeping me on track on my plans to do everything possible to destroy the vile and corrupt organization who were only out to exploit and ultimately own people like us. I just knew that had to be stopped, and my whole body ached for the chance to get revenge on those innocent people they killed for there vain attempts at a comeback using my blood. But as per usual this was beyond the plans at the present time. Of course I knew I was going to go, she needed me and I knew that it was a 'boyfriendish' type of thing to do.

"yeah of course nikki, I will whatever you need and you know what its going to be fine everything will be I stand by what I said at the first time, the Simkin was lying he was just trying to get a rise out of you!" she had now straightened herself up perfectly she wiped her eyes and pulled her shirt down a little

"Right, thanks Nav your right of course it will be fine. So we going to get this shopping done or what? I smiled to her and gestured my hand outwards

"Lead the way beautiful, you're the shopper here, this would be the…second time in a mall" she rubbed her head confusedly

"Oh yeah that's right! Oh well come on lets go in there!" she pulled my hand along as I trailed behind her, not that I minded the view. But I still had no idea where we were going. We went into a rather large conglomerate style store nikki and I found a set of gloves for Linda, a book on exotic and mythological animals for Leigh plus a random brand name shirt, and we found Adem a journal that he could write in. I was completely stumped on what to get Shane and Kyle but I knew I wanted to get them something special; I left Nikki to find her something special and said that I would meet her outside in a little bit. I found what I wanted eventually, in a jewellery store it was a necklace, one the end of the sleek silver chain was a white gold feather, it was expensive but I didn't care. On the back I got engraved _"may you always have the beauty of the angel and soar on the wings of freedom"_ it was corny sure, but I always thought girls liked corny didn't they? I was still totally stuck on ideas for Shane and Kyle. But I didn't have any ideas still; they needed something special, I got Shane a pendant with a blue flame arcing onto it, and Kyle one with a gothic looking tree. I still wanted to give them something more but I had to figure that out when I to home.

I met everybody near the entrance just like they said. Everyone was smiling and full to the brim with shopping bags. Kyle was trying to peek into peoples bags, Shane was looking towards the exit and Adem seemed to be carrying triple the amount that everybody else did but was completely indifferent to the burden he was carrying and as usual completely and utterly lost in his thoughts I hoped to myself that the journal we were going to give Adem would really let him open up a little more. I had little more time to think about it coz I was interrupted by Kyle

"So…what you get me? Come on man what did you get me! It was something cool wasn't it, bet it was!" he was still talking fast considering his powers weren't being used I wondered to myself what the amount of restriction on the powers was whether if it was turned off completely (if that's at all possible) or it was just turned off from being active. I had no idea. But Kyle was still waiting for an answer from me

"Dude I am not telling you, you'll have to find out tomorrow! So back off fox boy!" I smiled at him and moved my bags out of his reach. We were still fighting over the bags when suddenly a loud alarm began to buzz and Nikki looked over to me with a rather flustered face

"does this have to happen every time we go into a shopping mall?" a couple of our people looked over to us and shrugged but we all decided we should leave anyway we had no choice we were being pummelled and forayed out of the exit by the mass of frenzied crowd. Linda yelled over the crowd

"Everyone meet out in the car park!' I head a couple of yells of agreement from everybody else as we ran in a panic out the car park. Soon after we watched everyone file out of the mall all dripping wet Nikki was hugging me as everyone went out. And suddenly there was an explosion from somewhere near the back of the building Nikki looked at me

"You know, I don't think we should let you near malls anymore Navar Keelan" joked Adem as I snuck him and evil look when suddenly there was a scream from someone near the front.

"THERES SOMEBODY STUCK IN THERE! "There was some innocent person stuck in that building, because of some freak explosion. I didn't know what to do I had to do something, someone had to do something! She could die in there! My mind was going over a hundred reasons why I should be helping the mysterious person who was in there. SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE! I think everyone could see my desperation I turned round to the group as I dropped my bags

"Guys, I'm going in there, who ever it is I can save them! I can guys…I think I should do it" Linda stepped forward

"Nav you cant do that, you know we have been warned where not supposed to use our powers?" I knew all this, but I had to do something, something had to be done!

"Linda! I have to do this, I don't even have to use my power, random act of kindness you know, oh man I don't know I don't care I'm doing it man!" I dropped my bags and ran towards the entrance, I heard screams coming from everybody behind me it didn't matter, something still had to be done. I got to the crowd and yelled I couldn't believe no body was doing anything

"Everybody get out of the way!!" there was a couple of stunned people who moved out of the way instantly. However one bald man with a goatee who looked rather muscle-bound stepped in my way

"You're just a kid, kid! You can't save her. Go back to your friends" I didn't have time for this man! He was wasting time

"You're just a kid, kid? Wow way to go with the alliteration baldy, now get out my way!" the man scrunched up his face and fists, but I didn't care, I simply stepped up to him and threw him out of my way. There was an amazing amount of stunned people still awe struck that I managed to throw such a large man out of the way with one hand. But it didn't matter. I burst into the entrance, it was smoky really smoky and there was fire coming from somewhere in the back of the building. I needed to find out where this person was. I opened the door in the back of my brain and reached into my senses, the jar opened I was now seeing three dimensionally I could even hear the distant sirens of the fire truck and somewhere near the back of the place I could feel a faint heartbeat it sped up a little and soon after a scream followed it was a female voice who ever it was her heart rate was getting slower. I snared up into the top of my building I could see more and had a better vantage I could see the fire and sensed the problem was somewhere near there, a tentacle flipped out of my back and pushed me forward, I flipped over again and landed just close enough so the girl wouldn't see me use my power, the heat and smoke was getting intense, I guess before my change it may of affected me. But now I may as well of been breathing air. I walked forward a large bookshelf had fell on the girl in the book shop, the water was still raining down over me and everywhere there was water mixing with smoke creating a rather funky atmosphere that I imagine would be rather unbearable for most. I walked towards the girl I was trying to source the reason for the fire I couldn't see any of it. I finally made it to the girl there was dishevelled books everywhere and most of them were now water logged, the girl was wedged under a shelving unit near her pelvis. She had amazingly penetrating green eyes, her hair was a stunning blonde and her bangs spiked out to frame her face perfectly. Her lips pouted out with a beautiful lipstick and drew into a slightly angled face. She looked about the same age as me she was a little shorter and wearing tight black leather jeans with a tight black shirt and heavy black eyeliner that made her blue eyes even more amazing. She tried to speak

"Who, who are you?" she said through coughed breaths her heart beat was fainting. I went to pick her up after I flicked away the bookshelf like it was a piece of paper. She tried to speak again obviously stunned at the ease of my throwing off the bookshelf

"How, how did you do that?" I shook it off I wanted her to think it was a part of her delusion of something else

"Never mind, listen your going to be ok! You think you can help me pick you up" the girl squirmed a little as her eyes were starting to role back into her head. I managed to pick her up but she did manage to cut my with one of her nails, curiously the only black painted nail she had. But it was ok I managed to pick her up. All around me the mall was starting to deteriorate, however the water sprinklers seemed to get a hold of the situation. I was walking down the stairs when suddenly the door burst open and firemen rushed through, all full off panic and worry. I could already tell them how many people were alive in the next hundred meters or so. And none of them were in this mall. What appeared to be the lead fire-fighter skidded across the floor when he saw me:

"Kid, you ok? I heard there was someone screaming inside. That her kid?" I nodded to him

"wow kid! Nice job that's really heroic of you kid! Do you know if anyone else is still in here?" I knew there wasn't

"yes, I've already checked, this was it" the man shook his head and told me to take the girl to the ambulance outside why he and his team did the rest. When I made it outside I made it too ceremonious applause. People had formed a line and were clapping me down till I made it to the ambulance; I couldn't hear much because everyone's voices were being drowned into everyone elses I did manage to catch some of the thing's people said

"Way to go kid!"

"How the hell did the kid do that?"

"Show off!"

"Dude you're a hero" the applause and acclaim reminded me of the hero dueling back at the institute, but I didn't care the girls heart was beginning to fail. I started to help her, increasing her heart beats myself, I didn't know the scope of my powers but the power to keep people alive seemed to be pretty cool to me finally I got her to the ambulance the ambulance officer seemed utterly confused

"Hey kid, you saved her hey? Well hand her over she looks like she's inhaled a little too much smoke were going to give her oxygen. Kid thanks and all but you're going to have to move away now she needs medical help, you can get your thanks later ok?" I begrudgingly accepted as I dropped her off on to the medical bay. I started to walk over to my friends Kyle was looking absolutely angry as hell and didn't even look at me. The rest of them were clapping except for Nikki who seemed to just look worried, I really didn't want to have anyone worry about me. How can anyone worry about a person who's basically invincible anyway? I was still walking forward until suddenly someone grabbed me on the shoulder

"Hey kid! You're a hero do you think we could get your comments?" I turned around confused there standing there was a camera crew and a rather attractive reporter I completely froze on the spot, this was the first time I had ever been filmed.

"I, uh um…err sure?" the reporter jumped onto the chance

"Chuck you filming this?" the cameraman nodded at her and she smiled and gave the thumbs up

"Excellent! Lucy majors nice to meet you! And your name was?" I was still stunned and frozen something about the camera froze me like ice

"I um…err my name is Navar, Navar Keelan" I was such an idiot I gave my real name! Why did I give my real name? All that was running through my head was the thoughts that I'm going to be in so much trouble. I needed to get out of this interview.

"Navar huh? That's quite a strange name; tell me Navar what compelled you to save that girl?" I had no idea really I just knew I had to do her. Obviously I needed to answer the lady was still staring at me

"Um. I dunno, she was in trouble" she muttered something about me being hopeless under her breath before she went to continue the story. I needed an out I didn't want to be in this interview anymore, the trouble being, I still was. Suddenly I heard my name being called. It appeared the car had arrived. I told the lady I had to go and ran as quickly as I could to the car. I was recoiling in my mind about everything that just happened; the biggest problem I thought to myself was that I enjoyed it. I really enjoyed helping people and playing the hero.

CHAPTER 6

In the manor of angels

After I got back into the car I came into mixed reactions. Nikki was still hugging me and fawning over me, which was completely useless considering I was pretty much impervious to damage anyway. I decided to query her on this fact.

"Nikki, you do realize Im like impervious to damage right?" Nikki looked up at into my face as she elbowed me into the stomach

"You feel that hotshot?" I felt it, but it was the usual pain of my body not exactly feeling pain, but telling me where I should probably be feeling pain. I winced at her, she appeared to be satisfied

"Um err yeah sort of, why?" she smiled and did it again

"And that's why I'm worried about you moron, you can still feel pain I don't care how much damage you can take. I don't want my boyfriend pulling people out of fires for the hell of it ok?" she said the word again "boyfriend" it was such a hard scenario to think about. What exactly was a boyfriend anyway? Didn't it just show humans obscene need for ownership over material things? However I think I understand why people did it, to own…people in a way was the best thing in life you could own, imagine owning something with the free will to simply say no. It just goes to prove that burning feeling inside your stomach that glorifies the reason that you can actually 'own' someone. Everyone else's reactions however seemed completely different Linda butted in first before anyone else managed to say anything else

"Nav! I can't believe you did that! You could of got caught Nav, you could have got caught!" I knew all this. I went through all of this in my head before I made the decision to save the girl. But didn't this all come down to the fact that I just saved an innocent life?

"Linda I know this, but aren't we forgetting the fact that I just saved an innocent girls life!?" I was starting to get angry at how Linda could be so ignorant to the fact that I just saved a life. The only other distracting thing was that my wrist was getting really itchy, I pushed it out of my brain, my body could heal any wound, as a matter of fact I didn't know why this one had stayed so long. Maybe it was infected? But it didn't matter; I was still annoyed at Linda. Linda continued:

"Nav, I know you did, and believe me I think you're a hero. But that was just really reckless. You should just have thought it through some more." I couldn't believe me she was attacking for saving someone!

"Linda! Who better to go and pull someone out of a burning building then someone who basically can't be hurt?" Linda pouted and turned her head away from me. She obviously didn't want to continue the argument anymore. I looked around the car as we were still driving. I looked over to Leigh he looked over to Linda, who was staring out of the car window not paying attention to anyone and then gave me a thumbs up and smiled secretly, I returned the thumbs up and smiled as well just as the itch on my arm was starting to subside. I turned to Adem to see what his reaction was. He was still staring at the car roof until he noticed that I was looking at him, he simply smiled at me and then returned his gaze to the floor. I wasn't sure if this was just Adem being Adem or if he didn't want to say anything because of the argument I just had with Linda either way I moved my glaze on to the next person. Shane was looking into his bags as if to count something. Until he noticed I was looking at him, considering he was sitting next to me he whispered into my ear

"I would have done the same thing" finally someone agreed with me. Why people couldn't see the reality that I just saved a girls life. Not even the reality of me being able to go in and flex my muscles, not the fame of being talked to by a media crew, not the fact that I may have risk the exposure of us special people. No, the fact that I saved the girls life, that girl is now alive and ok because of me!

"Hey Nav, what did it feel like you know…being a hero?" Shane whispered into my ear, I tried to think about what it actually did feel like, the excitement and the spontaneity of it all. I came to the conclusion in my mind that it felt great. It filled me with an amazing sense of adrenalin and wonderment. I wanted to think of it more but as my wrist was itching Shane was still looking at me for an answer

"Shane, it felt great man" Shane looked at me and then his hands, I think he was really missing being able to use his powers

"Yeah I bet it did man, I really wish I could of done something, I think fox boy took it worse then Linda did though" I looked over to the other side of the seats, resting against a window was Kyle, still and un-animated, completely out of character for him. His face was screwed up in anger as he was staring out of the window. I looked at Shane he shook his head and shrugged at me. I was thinking about saying something to Kyle but I didn't want to have another argument about how I saved a girls life and how I was somehow (however deluded everybody was) wrong in my action to save the girl. I simply turned to Nikki and rested on her shoulder the duration of the car ride.

The rest of the car ride was tough; everybody was still acting really weird. I was still annoyed at the general reaction from everybody, I just saved a girls life and here there were people yelling at me, yelling at me! But it didn't matter because now I was going to something far scarier, I could face hordes of people intent on killing me and still slap on a brave face. I've sneaked into the lair of Crispin black, fought a giant rock golem. But none of it compared to the terror that was unwinding in my stomach at this very moment. I was minutes away from having to meet Nikki's parents, the fear was mortifying not to mention the pressure, a girl's parents meant everything to her, and I had to make a good impression, I had to be on my best behaviour and look like a model citizen in front of her parents, normally to any normal person this would be a normally hard task, but to me this was an almost impossible task I was always so socially retarded in the best of times. And this time the pressure was stacked for me to become well normal, and I didn't even know what normal was. This was still my first year from what I can remember of me actually being, well what I at least call normal. The car was ascending up a cliff and everything around us was getting better, the houses were looking neater, the gardens were becoming more immaculate and extravagant, and it didn't seem to be getting any less extravagant as we went along. I was getting even more nervous, and all this, all these nerves were magnified even more by the fact that even though these were Nikki's parents there was the possibility that her dad, her own dad could be working for the organization. Which in a way was a good thing, a terrible thing to think about it but if I could somehow gain some sort of knowledge I would be somewhere closer to my goal of taking out the vile and disgustingly evil organization. Because of this such weird feelings began to boil inside me, the same feelings I had every time I thought about the organization, feelings of hate, feelings of destruction, feelings that scared me.

Finally we made it to the house, I managed to prevent people from getting their presents too early by covering it in some of my blood goo (much to everyone's displeasure) and we set off towards the house. It was a house set upon a cliff. The driveway had an impressive ascent as it trailed upwards to the large white brick house, the driveway was fringed with a variety of small shrubbery plants that I assumed were planted as to deal with there closeness to sea air. Just several meters away from the house was a cliff that looked over vast amounts of sea that appeared to go on forever fringed only by the perfect blue sky that only now was just starting to fade slightly. The wind up here was pretty strong most probably due to our altitude, the wind lapped around us as we were standing stationary holding hands looking upon the vast impressive-ness of the house. And the house was indeed impressive; it may have even been more impressive than my new house. It felt weird to say that "my house" my mansion, I had a house, it still sounded weird too. I turned my attention back to Nikki, who was shivering, either if was because of nerves or because of the cold wind whipping around us I wasn't sure.

"You…lived here?" without looking at me, still keeping her attention on the house and her hand around mine

"Yes sir" I squeezed her hand harder again

"Here?" she squeezed it back

"Yes Nav, here" I was still amazed by the vastness of the house.

"Nav, I don't know what your problem is, are you forgetting you have a mansion as well" I think for the moment drenched on the reality of this situation I had forgotten about my home

"Uh yeah right" I said still stunned

"So um yeah this is the bennet residence…home, well not really I haven't been here very long, as I said I lived in Canada most of my life, I have only lived here for about a year" it didn't matter how long she had lived here, to her this was now home and it scared me.

"Do you have a pool?" she looked at me a bit curiously

"Why Navvy?" I looked over to her sill swallowing my pride

"…I have a pool!" she giggled a little before she spoke again

"This isn't a competition you know, I would like you know matter house you lived in" I think I blushed a bit more; I still didn't want to say anything I didn't want to ruin the moment

"Besides, we have two pools" I coughed, how the hell do you get two pools? That ridiculous but I tried to hide the rest of my recoiling and keep the little inkling of pride I had left. Nikki looked at me as she was still shivering

"Nav, I'm scared" I looked at her and put my arm around her

"Nikki do you know how ridiculous it sounds to be afraid of your own parents? Besides I'm supposed to be the one who's scared, and believe me I'd face a million Kyle, Shane or Adem's before doing this any day" nikki looked at me and straightened herself up a little bit

"Yeah your right, they are my parents I have no reason to be scared, thanks Navvy, and hey only I'm allowed to be scared of my parents!" I shrugged it off and swallowed some more air.

"uh, yeah right" Nikki pulled my hand forward and we started to ascend up the illustrious driveway until we made it to the large tan coloured wooden door, that suited the bleached white rendered-over bricks of the house quite well. The doorbell rang, it sounded like gentle wind chimes. My heart started racing I could feel it began to amount higher amounts of beats, Nikki's heart almost matching mine in rapidity. Eventually after what seemed to me about an hour the door creaked open, Nikki and mines hearts started to race even more, what the door revealed was a tall woman, she had darker skin that seemed to either be from some other racial connection or from a lot of tanning herself, she wore a tight luxurious white dress that draped off the woman perfectly she had light brown hair that curved around her smooth feminine face, her eyes were dark brown and accentuated by dark eye liner and luxurious eye lashes, and she was adorned by a large amount of luxurious jewels and a beautiful necklace. She looked down upon Nikki and she smiled widened to reveal perfect white teeth

"Ah my baby's come home!" she had a slight residual accent that was tempered as well with what I guessed was Canadian. She leant down and hugged her daughter, Nikki let go of my hand and apprehensively hugged her mother back. Her mother released her daughter of a the hug, and then turned her attention to me, she arched her back curiously and placed her hands on her hips as she sized me up (something I was guessing must have been a Bennet family trait)

"And you must be Navar, no?" I nodded I was still so shocked at the whole being here, at least I could see where nikki got her beauty from, her mother had looks twenty something's would kill for. I simply nodded she looked me up and down again before smiling again

"I have simply heard so much about you! I heard you won the school fighting competition, not to mention save everyone from whom? I don't know it was some kid wasn't it? Awful business all that, anyway it is most defiantly a pleasure to meet you Nav!" I blushed a bit I still wasn't that much used to praise. She bent over and gave me a hug and whispered into my ear

"And for rescuing my dear nikki…" she kissed me on the cheek, it burnt even more than the first time nikki kissed me on the cheek, I wasn't sure if this had something to do with the fact that Nikki's mum was immensely beautiful or the fact that nikki was still watching me. Her mother moved to one side and gestured us to come inside

"Come in, come in I'm sure everyone's dying to meet you" the house inside looked even more lavish, almost the opposite to my house, it was dark wooden floorboards that lead to a long corridor of which I could see the fringes of a couch, and further to that an eating area and beyond that wide glass doors that revealed an awe inspiring coastal view of cliffs and water. I took a deep breath and walked in. Nikki had run in before and was waiting for me half way down the white corridor her mother had since walked into the kitchen beyond. I walked forward until Nikki grabbed my hand and pulled me forward with more speed, we passed a lounge room that was fringed with what looked like all the best appliances money could buy. Until I was in the kitchen which also had a sitting area in it, which seemed pointless because there also appeared to be a second dining room out on the rather large balcony outside which almost seemed to fringe almost off the cliff beyond.

"And this is Arthur, or Nikki's dad" the man behind the breakfast counter looked up. He had a well manicured hair cut with flecks of grey through it, a small but masculine face which rounded into a angular jaw and a straight black goatee. His eyes were well rounded and deep brown fringed with heavy brown eyebrows. He was wearing sleek black slacks and a blue polo shirt; he as well appeared to be adorned with all manner of expensive accessories. He looked over to me and smiled widely in an almost creepy grin.

"Ah…Mr. Keelan I presume?" I was still rather intimidated by this man. He walked over to me; he was just a little taller than me. He looked me up and down, still smiling rather unusually wide.

"I have simply heard so much about you my dear boy!" he put out his hand to shake it, I looked over to Nikki she nodded to me rather flustered. I took the man's hand he shook it rather hard until he looked over to my scar on my other wrist

"Nasty that, can I ask what happened my boy?" he ran his fingers over it and the odd black scar quivered when he touched it.

"…how did you get it?" I didn't really want to tell him that I was out saving damsels in distress, and besides I didn't know how much Nikki had told her parents about well, us people

"oh…long story" I tried to shake it off indifferently he looked at the scar rather curiously for a couple more seconds till he looked back up to me

"Yes I don't doubt it wasn't" I nodded to him and put the arm back into my pocket as to draw it away from attention.

"Name's Arthur, Arthur bennet, and you of course of the prestigious Navar Keelan are you not, talk of the society you are! I hear your mother has become quite the socialite of late, Francesca has even met her couple of times haven't you Fran?" Fran nodded

"Oh yes your mothers quite a lovely woman, always busy though being pestered by a million questions a time she is." I scrunched up my face a little bit. It was so odd to think of my mother as anything else other than the mother I had always known. Her as this new illustrious and social woman just didn't suit my mother at all

"My mother?" I asked. Both Arthur and Fran nodded

"Oh yes, but then everybody simply must talk to the mother of the now famous Navar Keelan now mustn't they?" said Nikki's dad in a sweet kind of voice. He looked around and tapped the table

"Oh and Navar, don't be afraid to use your powers if you want to, we have the proper protections set in place to lift any…inhibitors you have in place." I looked around at the house. It was hard to think about a house other than mine that allowed you to use your powers, but I gathered that there simply was some sort of alarm type system that lifted and protected things from powers. Even more curious was the idea was a working and structured family that embraced the idea of having a super power, it all seemed unreal to me. I was still getting used to the idea of being part of mutant of "godsent" society and now here I was seeing a structured working part of the society. I looked up and everyone was still looking at me. I didn't want to let on that I didn't have any inhibitors

"Oh right, well that's a…relief isn't it?" They both smiled at each other until Arthur looked at his watch

"Where is that sister of yours Nikki?" Nikki looked over to her father

"Your right where is jade?" it was at this point I remembered Nikki had a sister called jade, however I had absolutely no idea how old she was or anything else but her name. As if by cue the steps near the kitchen and hallway began to rattle with noise. Voices were coming from the stairs

"Hey mum, mum turn the TV on there's something on about this kid who saved this girl from a fire in the mall, and he's cute too!" I blushed even more considering I knew this was about me. The TV flashed on somewhere in the distance and jade came running into the kitchen she skidded to a halt when she saw us. She was shorter then Nikki and looked about 18 she had straight brown hair with very minimal blonde highlights, her hair and her bangs curled around her face. She had beautiful brown eyes and small feminine lips the draw into a cute round face. She was wearing tight blue hipsters with a low cut pink top. By this point I pretty much deduced that beauty simply must run in the family. Every single person in this family was way beyond being ugly. Nikki spied me a flustered look while her parents moved into the room with the television I reluctantly followed suit. There on their large flat TV that took up a large portion of the wall it sat against was the news reporter who had asked me those questions, seeing myself on TV was a rather dubious experience, my face was as it always was. My odd green eyes with my messy dark hair that had a variation of different colour tones through it, a bang on the right side of my hair was pushed down slightly while the rest of my hair sat up in a messy and spiky look that seemed to defy gravity itself. My neck trailed into a rather masculine collar-bone, Nikki's parents had rather varied reactions, her mother seemed rather shocked and had her hand covered over her mouth, Nikki's father however seemed to be trying to hide a curious amount of pleasure in the situation, he simply stroked his goatee staring into the screen jade had her face almost glued to the screen and kept staring from the screen to me, nikki and I were trying our best to act indifferent but our reactions seemed to do nothing for minutes we stood there all watching the screen constantly relate the same information repeatedly with a general focus on my mysterious identity. I was really flustered all the thoughts of the possible ramifications of my public appearance began to flood my mind. Was I going to be arrested by the enigmatic "house of m?" was I going the emancipated from this new life I now came to love? I had little more time to debate the other possibilities because there was a nudge in my ribs. The nudge belonged to nikki who was alerting me to the fact that her entire family was staring at me each with there own different expressions, her father with his curious glare of what nature I could not ascertain, Nikki's mother with her shocked and worried look, and lastly with jade who was showing a look of total awe. I didn't want to say anything, I just wanted to shrink into the earth, I ironic thing being if I concentrated hard enough I most probably could. Jade broke the silence first in an excited and flustered voice

"Nav, it was you! How was it like…saving a girl from a burning building, what was the girl? Did you get her name? What did she look like?" I blushed a little and looked over to Nikki who was looking at me rather infuriated and then looked away when she noticed me looking at her. I looked back at jade, whom was still giddy for an answer I decided to stammer into an answer

"I uh, (my scar began to itch again) …it felt really" my body was rushing with strange impulses that I had never felt before, feelings of blood lust, of rage and full blown pride and arrogance ran through my body, I brushed them past as soon as they came to me, they were nothing but curious flashes of odd unforeseen emotions that spontaneously came over me, I looked to jade and cocked my head curiously

"It…it felt…good, like there was such an adrenalin rush it was amazing, the girl however I don't really know, she was about my age and I didn't catch her name really" jade looked a bit sullen and turned her attention back to the TV that was still annoyingly repeating my experience constantly. Nikki's mother came to my side and grabbed my face and cocked it to either side and then looked worriedly at me

"I don't see any scars on you at all?" she pulled up my arms in a motherly fashion and dropped my arm suddenly

"My dear Navar your all muscle! How are your lungs did you inhale a lot of smoke?" I was starting at Nikki who was now starting to laugh a bit at me under her breath. I was still quite foreign to other mothers cares and attention. Luckily Nikki's father soon intervened

"Francesca will you please call off your dogs, this is Navar Keelan here, the hero of the so called 'Simkin' incident this Francesca, is 'blood' as I believe it he possesses nearly limitless regenerative capabilities, I'm sure a little fire and smoke isn't going to damage the boy" Nikki's dad walked over to me and tapped me on the shoulder and walked off into the kitchen. Nikki's mother made an 'of course!' reaction and walked off into the kitchen following Nikki's father. Jades phone flipped open and she ran outside to answer it. I looked at Nikki who shrugged and walked off into the kitchen following her parents, she muttered something under her breath that sounded like 'parents…' I didn't really want to stand in a foreign lounge room with nobody else here; I walked into the kitchen with Nikki

"Shall we eat then?" her mother beckoned outside where a platter of food was set up around what looked like a variety of barbequed meats. The outside view was stunning, were almost perched directly over a cliff which over looked the coastal view of more of the same, somewhere down from our eating area was a luxurious looking pool which lead to stairs which also lead to another pool which ran water in to the second one, I couldn't believe it, two pools! We sat down and began to eat, as I remarked in the amazing view they possessed. They enlightened me onto what cape I was indeed looking into and Nikki's mother began to talk about how jade was actually quite an adept swimmer who had one numerous medals and that jade also planned to pursue swimming as her chosen career after she left school. Her father asked questions about our school semester and numerous questions about the incident with the Simkin, I did my best to give him no real information, I really didn't feel like sharing the experience with anyone Nikki followed suit in my animosity and indifference on the subject. After eating nikki went to help pack the dishes with her parents after offering profusely to help I was dismissed, I decided to have a look at the pool above the other pool and followed the stairs up to the next level of this incredible house, the pool was almost as large as the roof and flowed effortlessly into the pool below in a glorious display of cascading water, from there the view was almost perfect, I tried to imagine myself swimming in this beautiful pool surrounded by views of endless oceans and majestic cliffs when beside me I felt skin rub against my shoulder and then a silent splash from the pool. Soon after jade surfaced, she was wearing a flattering black bikini and bottom and her hair floated on top of the water sprawling out to look like some sort of crude fan.

"Going to come in Nav?" In truth I would have liked to come in, the sun was shining mercilessly with no clouds visible within the horizon, however I had no bathers. I thought about it and I felt my boxer shorts under my pants shift soundlessly I peered down into my pants and to my surprise my boxers had changed into black board shorts with a red web over one side I smiled to jade in a meek sort of way and nodded to her, as I began to hang my clothes on the clothes holder which was to my right.

"I guess I am jade" she smiled and waded off into the other corner indifferently I walked into the water cautiously, I had been taught how to swim when I was younger, however it was on a sheer basic level and I have since or so I believed forgotten how. However when my body touched the cool water it seemed to react instinctively my body felt lighter and more fluent, not just by the fact that we were in water, but by what I guessed was my body trying to take on the characteristics of the water, I focused hard on staying as corporeal as I could and it seemed to follow suit albeit with the beneficial of feeling lighter and more fluent, I waded my way over to the side of the pool that faced the city and the suburbs, I could see Sydney Harbour bridge in the distance and I even think I managed to spy my house but pushed it past my notice because my house didn't have a garden, where as this house seemed to have a rather small but otherwise notable garden on the top of the roof, I started concentrating on how the water felt, the cool liquid ran around all my body and cooled it from the heating sun, I dunked my head under and to my surprise I could still see perfectly and even odder was the fact that it appeared that I could breath underwater, yet another amazing mystery my new body had given me, I pulled my head to notice jade back stroking leisurely somewhere near the middle of this luxurious pool, she noticed me noticing her and waded her way over to me.

"I love the water, like just the way it feels, the way you know how its so well, I just love the water" I smiled to her as I flicked my leg from the floor in a vain attempt to raise myself higher in the water, I decided to bluff my way through this conversation I was still at this point cautious to let inklings of my dubious past filter through, I think I was still ashamed of my dubious beginnings

"Yeah waters great" I slapped myself in my head, yet another case of my retarded word-vomit, Jade smiled and flicked off to the other side of the pool, I cautiously willed myself to go deeper, though my body was completely able to prevent me from any such harm, my mind was still unable to bypass my complete unknown of swimming. Jade waded herself closer to me as she stared off into another direction until she faced me in a sheepish fashion

"So you and Nikki hey?" I coughed a little and unwillingly sunk myself In the water when I rose jade was still waiting for an answer, I thought to myself that she didn't even ask a proper question and she wanted an answer, I didn't even know what kind of answer you gave to a question so infuriatingly vague I simply stared blankly at her and answered

"Uh…yes?" she nodded and began to float onto her back, the sun reflecting her tanned mid-drift perfectly

"She's always been dads 'favourite' too you know, coz of the powers thing…I think my parents were a little disappointed when I came out as a 'normie' you have no idea how much pressure it is trying to compete with a sister who can grow wings and fly" I looked at jade who had since returned to paddling around the pool within the close vicinity of me, she appeared to be rather bitter at the fact her sister was a god-sent like me. I found this rather curious. If not completely unfounded by my knowledge Nikki had never done anything to initiate any such competition with her sister, however who knows the true history of her family I thought to myself. Jade looked back over to me in a curious way as if she was siting a curious hamster or something

"So nav, or blood what can you do?" I blushed a little and tried to act as indifferent as I could.

"Oh you know, lots of things" jade rolled her eyes and began to swim away from me obviously unpleased by my answer. There was talking over in the direction of the steps. It was the rest of the family, Nikki's mother had adorned herself with a regal looking red bikini that seemed to show a girl much younger then her mother really was, her father who appeared to be in peak athletic condition was wearing some simple black shorts and lastly nikki was wearing a tight white bikini that appeared to be only just a little tight for her. The effect of the tight bikini on her was more than breathtaking, she noticed me noticing and mouthed "old bikini" to me as her mother began to walk down the steps that led into the pool she began to talk

"Thought you'd be in the pool, we knew jade would be anyway. However Nikki said you didn't have bathers on guess she was wrong hey Navar?" I smiled and began to tread water again. The next voice came from Nikki's father after he resurfaced from diving into the pool

"My lord Navar you really are all muscle, you simply must tell me what you do to work out" I blushed a little and instinctively covered myself until nikki's arms wrapped around me and smiled into my face

"He sure is all muscle" she kissed me on the cheek before diving and swimming off into the other side of the pool. We spent an hour or two in the beautiful pool lounging and talking to each other before it was time to leave, the visit had proved worthless on a fact finding mission, the only suspect things I had managed to ascertain was that nikki's father was a rather odd man, however on his supposed evil links I was still rather unsure. And the other being jade's rather odd resentment in Nikki's abilities. Nikki seemed a lot happier on the way home seemingly cleared from the idea of her father being evil, she was discussing possibilities of the Christmas presents we would receive when we arrived home. Which sparked a brilliant idea for what I could give Shane and Kyle as extra presents, I decided to give them each a shard of the lunatic Pandora, and perhaps it too could prove to have mysterious powers for them too.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The star that shines for me

Tonight the dream was different, as a matter of fact everything was different not just the dreams, everything. I felt like I was sleeping in a shell, a shell of myself and the rest of me was different, stranger, darker. I awoke to find the sun flooding through my velvet curtains, everything felt different, I tried to feel around without opening my eyes, everything still felt the same, I had the same hallow feeling I awoke to every morning, my hands were the same, and my feet were the same. But I couldn't shake the feeling, the odd feeling that something inside of me was wrong, maybe not even inside of me, but something wasn't right. I tried to push it out of my mind and focus on getting up, I peered over to my arm which was itching (my left).The itching belonged to the scar, and It had grown into something that resembled a crude black web that sprawled over my wrist, yet again something in my life that resembled something of spider memorabilia, there was always the constant connections to my appearance and powers resembling that of spider-man and now this web, and not to mention some of the decorations of the house but yet again another pointless thing that I was wasting my time thinking about. I got up and rubbed my eyes off sleep and looked at my watch it was 7:01, I had never really gotten to the idea of 'sleeping in' I had never really had normal sleeping patterns in the hospital so I had only just gotten used to full sleeps, let alone sleeping in. I walked myself to the mirror and for a minute I was so stunned one of my arms instinctively weaponized itself into a spike, which beside it being the usual red blood like colour was now curiously tipped black, but that wasn't the biggest surprise, the biggest surprise was the person staring back at me in the mirror. It was still me but my hair was different it was longer, considerably longer it was spiky and long and reached the length of halfway down my neck. It spiked out everywhere with odd lighter coloured tips that created and odd texture through my hair, my fringe on my right side spiked down well past my eye and almost past my mouth meeting in a perfect spike at its end. All in all it made me look like a completely different person, before I had short hair that defied gravity, now I had long black messy hair, I was completely stunned. I got dressed and headed out to the corridor, it was different the corridor was lined with beautiful decorations of plastic green with decorative red and gold tinsel edging it as well. I smiled to myself as I pushed my new hair out of my face, it was Christmas and even more so my first Christmas of my new life. I remembered that I had yet to wrap everyone's presents I guessed that Nikki would have taken care of all of our joint presents but I had yet to wrap Shane and Kyle's presents I walked into my room and into my closest and dug through all my things I had crammed in the box I took from the institute, and there it was nestled in its same red velvet box almost the size of my hand; the lunatic Pandora, a mystical artefact that had once brought more than three people back from the dead. I touched the hard corrosive surface of to half crescent rock, it glowed slightly, I was amazed at the fact that it still had any power left (if that's what it uses anyway) my chest began to warm when I touched it, only slightly but enough to give me a calm and warming effect that was completely soothing. My scar even stopped itching for a while. I sat back for a little bit and tried to rationalise my decision, did I really want to pass on such an amazing item? But I finally decided I did, I really had no more use for it anymore, and it was time for someone else to use its wonders. I grasped the odd glowing rock in my hands, I winced at the thought of braking it until it glory of it washed over me, and somehow I was now looking forward to the violence I relished in its braking, it split in half almost perfectly and its feint glow subsided even more till now it was merely only just glowing but in a sudden decision I left myself a piece; I couldn't bear getting rid of it completely. I placed the halves in two boxes along with the pendants I bought for them and began to walk out of the room, I was joined by Adem half way down the hall from his room he looked at me completely stunned, obviously staring at my new hairstyle, which at this point was still completely unexplainable he looked at me and smiled obviously trying not to seem rude by staring

"Good morning Navar Keelan, I um see you have a new hairstyle?" I smiled at him and ruffled my hair with my hand and shot him a confused look

"Yeah I guess I do hey?" Adem smiled at me again and began to walk towards the stairs, trust Adem not to ask questions, so much like him to do his best to stay out of a situation that could escalate into anything uncomfortable. I shrugged it off, it was probably better he didn't ask questions anyway, I knew as little about it as he did. I looked up into the Christmas decorations again and smiled, something about the idea of Christmas warmed me inside.

"Hey Adem?" he stopped walking and tuned around

"Yes Navar Keelan?" I hated how he always called me by my full name, hell I didn't even know why he did it, but it was pointless to ask him to stop and besides, it wasn't THAT annoying. I smiled at him again

"Merry Christmas Adem" he smiled at me and stared up into the decorations as well

"And you as well Navar Keelan" I smiled again as we both walked to transcend the steps. That looked upon our giant Christmas tree that was now adorned with many presents underneath it. I placed mine there as well. And stared up to the giant tree

"Oh my god, don't tell me have another visitor? God nav might as well call this an orphanage!" I had no idea what Shane was talking about, I looked to the door and there was no one there. I looked around at Shane who jumped a little bit, his hair flicking on fire an instant.

"Nav?" I smiled at him with a cheeky grin he just stood there for a couple of seconds with a dumb look on his face until he straightened himself up

"New hair nav?" I nodded and snuck him a sheepish look

"Yeah, you like it?" he shrugged and stepped forward a little

"Can you light it on fire?" I shook my head and stared at him a little stupidly he smiled and began to walk into the kitchen

"No, of course you can't because only I can do that cant I!" I rolled my eyes and followed him into the kitchen as well. Where everyone was eating breakfast, Leigh Linda, Nikki and Adem were sitting in the middle of the table; Kyle was sitting by himself at the end of the table. As a matter of fact Kyle had been acting weird ever since I saved that girl from the fire at the mall. Everyone looked up and stared at my hair all in awe. It was Nikki, who spoke first, in a large whiny tone

"Uh man who changed my boyfriend's hair!?" I laughed a little as I sat down next to Nikki sheepishly, Leigh stared at me smiling

"Hey nav can I ask you a question?" I looked at him rather irately

"What Leigh?" Leigh smiled at me

"What's with the hair?" a couple of people laughed, however I was just simply getting more annoyed. I finally decided to clear the air

"Look, ok I just woke up with it, I don't know where it came from, and anyway it's just a new hairstyle, deal with it!" I was rather surprised at my sudden outburst of anger, but somehow deep within in me, pulsed a pleasure for it, a pleasure for anger I simply shrugged it off as another emotion I just didn't understand. Nikki cleared the air next as she put her arm around me and moved her hand through my new hair

"You know, I kind of like it" Linda looked up and smiled a little as she was floating her and Leigh's plate to the middle of the table neatly with a little ease as possible.

"I dunno I liked the short hair more I think" I shrugged and began to spoon myself some breakfast as people busied themselves with talking about my hair. Peter told us that we should wait till lunch to pass our presents around as he said he was getting some last minute deliveries, and the fact that my mother was going to be arriving then, something about her train running late or something of the sort.

After lunch I decided to hang outside, Nikki and Linda had gone off to do 'girl stuff' Kyle was still missing in action again. And I hadn't seen Leigh since I left the kitchen, having nothing to do I decided to see if anyone else was outside. I found Shane and Adem talking in the battle area, I decided to join them.

"Ok well how should we start this then?" questioned Shane to Adem I decided to interject

"Start what?" Shane and Adem span around to notice me; I smiled and flicked my now considerably longer hair out of the way Shane decided to answer first

"Actually Im helping Adem out, were going to see if he can absorb my flame power, Im gonna help him harness it better" This seemed very odd to me, I could never imagine Shane wanting to share his powers with anyone, and yet here he was clearly willing to share with Adem. I cocked my head a little

"Um, can I join in?" Shane cocked his head at me now

"How can you join in?" to be honest I really didn't know how I could, I knew I had the capacity to do so, but doing it was a whole different ball game.

"I can absorb people's powers you know, well Im supposed to be able to anyway. I've absorbed yours before remember. Shane looked a little confused and shrugged at me.

"Ok so like I said before, how are we going to do this?" Adem interjected next

"Perhaps if you light your hand on fire, cool fire so I can touch it perhaps that will initiate my ability to absorb powers." Shane nodded and his hand erupted in a blue flame. Adem cautiously leant his hand towards Shane's as did I whilst concentrating hard on trying to absorb the power. Adem touched the flame and then recoiled his hand back quickly I placed my hand in the cool flame. And just as quickly my hand too was bathed in flame, but it was different, where Shane's hand was coated in flame, mine was flame itself flame such as I could poke a stick through it. I held my right hand up to my face; it was still burning like my wrist was a lighter, and my hand the flame that extruded. I clenched my fist and waved my hand around, it was uncanny. I grabbed the bush near me and it instantly erupted into flame, I tried to shoo it out but the flame was just spreading

"Nav, god damn it man control yourself!" Shane feinted his hand down, and the flames simply disappeared into nothingness as if they were never there

"Shane this is totally surreal" he smiled an almost jealous smile and tried to snuff my hand out with his own flaming hand to no avail; I smiled and tried to concentrate on spreading the fire. It had done so in an instant my body now existed of pure blue flame, well at least for a second until my wholeness came back to me. Within an instant I had gone from blood red goo, to my usual caporal body again. I was also strangely quite tired; I looked at Shane and Adem who were both staring at me in awe.

"That was bloody cool nav, how did you do that?" asked Shane rather enviously, I simply shrugged at him, I really had no idea how I did it, I just did, but I had little time to debate the conundrum of my body because Adem soon yelled out in pain his body was starting to coat in a thin layer or flame, nothing like Shane's suit of all-encompassing flame more like sporadic plumes of flame, and a thin layer of gas like fiery plasma, until it simply snuffed itself out. Adem got off the ground and straightened himself up, but no sooner had he done that. His body started to arch up again. His skin was turning black again, his body began to bulk in size, his face elongated and grew cruel teeth and a tongue began to lash around his mouth, it was Adem's skin suit: that horrible large black behemoth with its two huge tentacles whipping around his back, he stood there towering over us looking frightening enough to frighten a toddler to death, his big heaving breaths becoming more and more intimidating until the creature in front of us yelled out again, and then before us was a rather spectacular sight. Adem's transformation was now coated in the thin sporadic flame suit; his tentacles were whipping plumes of flame into the air. Shane looked over to me, and in a awe stunned voice simply said

"…Cool!" I nodded to him still keeping my eyes on the behemoth in front of me its huge heart thumping even through my usual blocks I had up so I didn't have to hear everyone's heartbeat, the creature yelped again before beginning the transformation back to the Adem we knew. He was just breathing heavily and lying on the grass for a while, Shane and I still simply giving him the time to stand up finally he straightened himself up and winced at us with a shade of a smile behind it

"I still haven't got used to that transformation thing, it still hurts a little, however I have pretty much got full control over it now" we both nodded, I remembered back to my blood suit days when I was learning to control it. The scope of learning to control that seemed ridiculous to the scope of powers that were now offered to me. Shane cracked his neck and stepped between Adem and I.

"Ok, now I want you to both concentrate on trying to do this" he stretched out his hands together and a stream of blue flame shot out of his hands and burnt for about three feet in front of him, Shane crafted his flames into two snakes that coiled around each other and faded into nothing. I tried, I managed to create the flame stream but It was more of an extension of my flame hand but it served the same purpose, Adem however simply managed to create the flamethrower effect but nothing more. Shane clapped his hands together as he sat down

"And that can be all for today" I clenched my fist which soon returned to its normal form and Adem did the same

We all sat around the table, my mother and peter included. Everyone holding there retrospective presents. I got given a plush red spider by Linda that I found cute but even a little bit insulting. Leigh gave me a set of wrist spikes like his, which I liked but I kind of found little use for considering I could just do it myself, but I smiled and said 'thank you' regardless. Shane gave me a small pot which had a blue flaming rose (which he gave to everyone) I thought it was kind of cool, I could use it for a candle or something but regardless it was hardly exclusive, Kyle gave me an alarm clock with a rather large lcd display (I guess because of my usual anger at the lack of time telling devices in my life) which was a thoughtful and smart idea. Nikki's present was a rather thoughtful and sentimental one, she got a framed photo of us taken at some point when I don't even remember it being taken, but I looked happy, she as-per-usual looked beautiful. It gave me a warm feeling inside, I recalled all my fond memories of her, Nikki was so beautiful, and I truly did love her. However of all the presents I received I think I liked Adem's present the most, it was a photo, a group photo of all the people that were in the raven faction, this photo I actually remember happening. It was shortly before I left, besides everybody looking a little bit sullen, which considering the graves circumstances we had all just gone through; was to be expected. However it was just good to see everybody. To see Jackson Holmes gruff but distinguished persona. I thought about all my times there, overall. I couldn't wait till go back. Adem got everybody to sign the large picture as well which gave it even more sentimentality. And lastly my mother gave me a very old family photo, I must have been as young as two or three, and standing behind the baby me, was two people my mother who was looking very beautiful, and a worried looking man with deep brown eyes and eye brows, and a goatee that curved from his mouth down to his pointed chin, fringed by messy brown hair that stuck up somewhere around the middled but was parted around the face and ended somewhere near his eyes, he had one eye firmly looked upon me and was wearing a tired, hangdog impression. This man apparently was my father Kim Keelan. I studied this photo with as much scrutiny as I could muster trying to find some detail in this stranger's face I could recognize. However I simply could not remember the man who was staring at me with his weak smile in this photo. This idea saddened me deeply, what kind of person cannot remember his father, even more I knew nothing about this man, I didn't know why he left or even if he left, maybe he died? Maybe he wasn't even my father just a well-wisher, simply I had no idea who this man was. And whenever I tried to ask my mother I was met with a brick wall which frustrated me even more, what was the reason my mother would not tell me, was the true history of my father so truly horrible? Anyway I pushed it away and focused on everybody's presents. Adem seemed to rather like his journal Nikki and I bought him, he was fussing about it for most of the time we were giving out the presents. Kyle's favourite present seemed to be a small Venus flytrap Adem gave him, which he was playing with like a pet. Linda received a black ring from Leigh, which had a red rose stretched across the front of it, it was rather pretty and Linda seemed to be rather pleased with it. Shane was most happy with his flame pendant, which he rolled around his fingers playfully. Leigh had been given a band shirt by Shane which he seemed rather amused by, and lastly nikki was really moved by her diamond feather pendant I brought her, and she was staring at it teary eyed. Finally I decided to give Shane and Kyle there pieces of the lunatic Pandora.

"What's this nav?" Asked Shane inquisitively, Kyle just leered at me and grabbed the red box, which I found rather offensive considering I was giving him a present the least he could do was act grateful, Shane grabbed the box and opened it quickly, and he gave me a curious glance. And picked up the odd rock, suddenly light emitted from the glowing rock at the same time my chest began to feel that glorious warmth it did every time I handled or came into contact with the lunatic Pandora. After the light subsided, where there was once a rock was now an odd metallic substance, it was constantly moving and shifting itself like and odd moving metallic rock. Shane poked and prodded it for a while, until he set it on fire the metal did nothing; the fire mysteriously did not affect it. It just sat there shifting and rolling around upon itself. Shane looked utterly delighted until he put the odd metallic goo back into the red box, where it shrunk back to its original rock like form.

"Wow that was weird, is this the lunatic Pandora nav" I nodded weakly I was still confused about the amazing reaction the Pandora had to Shane, the professor always said it was a curious artefact, but it just kept getting weirder every time I saw it. Shane put the box back onto the pile of his presents and smiled at me

"Kyle you have to try yours!" said Shane as he nudged the still quiet Kyle. He said nothing still. But simply pulled the rock out slowly, In Kyle's hands the rock morphed into the same rolling upon itself substance. However in Kyle's hands it resembled a glass like substances, he seemed rather interested in the substance and grabbed his stick; the same one he held with him constantly, when he held the stick closer to the glass-like substance it glowed slightly. Without a word more Kyle got up and walked out of the room. Everyone looked around the room quite oddly; there was a rather un-easy air about us. My mum broke the air first

"Is he always like this, that Kyle boy?" I imagined rather mums comment was rather impetuous but it did help to break the awkward-ness of the situation, I decided to answer for everybody

"No mum he's not, as a matter of fact this is the most not like Kyle I have ever seen him, does anybody know what's wrong with Kyle, he hasn't been happy for a while hey?" everyone looked around at each other uneasily. It was Linda who spoke first

" Maybe…you should go talk to him nav?" why should I go talk to him? he hadn't said two words to me in two days, and besides if anyone should go talk to him it should be Shane, he and Kyle were always the ones that hung out the most

"Me; why me? Shane and Kyle are the ones that hang out the most anyway!" I felt a little guilty at the abruptness of my comment but it was true never the less, I didn't see why I had to deal with an angry Kyle

"No, nav I agree with them, I think you should talk to him" said Shane in a calm and collected voice. I looked at Nikki who nodded at me and gestured to the exit where Kyle left. I rolled my eyes and angrily pushed the chair away and walked out of the room, but not before I yelled out to everyone in a rather annoyed fashion

"FINE!" I couldn't understand where this anger was coming from, or why it felt great for some reason but my now odd web like scar was itching furiously. I found Kyle sitting on a hedge near the fight area, all around him barbed vines were slowly growing around him, whipping the air like vicious snakes, I approached Kyle with caution but my anger was still pulsing inside me. I stepped forward and through my arms into the air

"What the hell is wrong with you anyway Kyle!?" again I was shocked with my anger, but it was like I was flying on auto-drive, my anger was controlling me now, and for some reason the rest of me seemed to revelling in it, sucking it up like it was feeding off it. As soon as I said my comment the vines whipped around like snakes observing me until Kyle himself spun around, as per usual clutching his precious stick in one hand.

"Leave me alone nav!" I clenched my fist, and instinctively two tentacles sprang from my back, barbed and crawling around in the air, also like snakes, again they were that curious red but the end was the black tip that was fading back down along my tentacles, they were darker than they were before, and the black seemed to be creeping along down my tentacle. I resumed my focus on Kyle who was now beginning to turn around again

"Don't you face your back to me Kyle, seriously I want to know what wrong with you!?" he didn't even turn around he just kept walking the vines growing together to create a barrier between me and him, I yelled again

"Kyle!" I struck my tentacles out in anger, easily slicing through the growing vines creating a large gap between the growing vines.

"Nav, will you just fuck off?" I was getting even angrier now, Kyle seemed to sense this, and he grasped his stick in his hand in a battle pose. He actually thought he was going to fight me? A growing sense of over confidence washed over me, my body was pulsing with violent thoughts of pride and vengeance towards Kyle who was really starting to annoy me. My fist clenched together and spiked out with large knuckle claws. Kyle noticed me reaction and started to sprout barbed vines from his stick, his stupid stick, I wondered to myself how he would like to see me break it. When suddenly from nowhere calm began to wash over me, what the hell was I doing? Was I really thinking about fighting Kyle, fighting my friend, for what? Because he was ignoring me? Violence was not the answer to this situation, I nearly punched myself. I retracted my tentacles and unclenched my fists. And threw my head down in shame, my body seemed to be repulsed in my change of heart but I pushed it out of my head, I needed to concentrate, I sat down on the ground to show I was no threat to Kyle, and with a gentle voice tried to reason with him, behind him the light was slowly setting

"Kyle man, seriously what's wrong man, I miss you" he clenched his face in anger still

"Why don't you piss off and go play hero again?" is that what this was about, me saving that girl in the fire, I couldn't believe it was something so trivial, my body pulsed with the same glorious feeling of anger which almost overcame me again, but I pushed it out of my mind, it was harder to do this time but I did it eventually. I stared at Kyle with as much feeling I could muster.

"Dude why are you angry at me for that?" he stared at me some more and sunk his head to the ground as all the plants that were growing around him began to die around him, and he quietly whispered to me in hurt words

"I couldn't do anything nav, I couldn't do….anything, all this….this power, and I couldn't do anything" finally I could see where Kyle was coming from I could understand the feeling of being helpless, hell I had the feeling most of my life, I tried to relay this to him, but with a flick he had catapulted himself up onto the roof I guessed now was not the time to discuss this with him further however at least I finally knew what was wrong. I sat on the grass watching the moon rising from the earth and staring at the stars, and as I did, I stared at that one star I used to stare out through the windows in the hospital, the star I always thought that shined for me.

CHAPTER 8

The Omega

I slept uneasy that night, my body kept recalling the events that happened with Kyle, not even the fact that he was simply feeling helpless, what scared me even more was myself, that evil that washed over me; the shadow of myself that was almost ready to hurt Kyle, just for simply ignoring me. It scared me, it haunted me in the back of my brain this feeling of a haunting shadow ready to rent my body into an evil entity. I had to talk to Kyle more, I had to tell him how helpless I feel all the time, how I never really feel like I know what I'm doing, how I never know where to go or what to do, that I make all my decisions as I go along. And how scared I was about the decisions I actually make for myself. Was it this evil shadow of myself that made the decision to take down the organization? Or was it the true and righteous part of me that wanted to do it for the good of humanity. Or was my intent more evil, purely based on my need for vengeance and revenge for the miss-deeds done to me. I woke suddenly and abruptly, my body feeling as light and as hollow as it did every morning. Kovu was shocked by my sudden wake and jumped off the bed in protest, I was drowned in sweat, my forehead felt hot and I felt a little sick, I really did have a bad sleep. I got up to look at myself in the mirror. My longer hair was still there, looking as messy and spiky as usual, my eyes however seemed to have a little darker rings around them that I put down merely to the lack of sleep, however I could of swore my odd black web scar had gotten bigger, but I pushed it out of my mind, scars couldn't grow. I had a cold shower this morning it felt good against my skin that seemed to be burning hot. I got dressed and went to walk out of the room; I spied the time on the clock Kyle bought me it said it was 7:30, seeing the clock gave me a sinking feeling inside my stomach when I thought of Kyle. I walked past Adem's room and the door was open, there was photo's of all us hang around on the walls, and even a large raven faction banner hanging off the end off his bed like a curtain it was black with a large raven with its wings outstretched with a purple outline, and as per usual a feather was missing from its wings. I made a note to myself to get one of those banners there were quite impressive and I guess I was quite proud to be a part of the raven faction, a fact that we won the tournament and even the teachers exhibition match only strengthened my patriotism for the raven faction. Down the hall I could hear voices. I could only really hear peters voice which seemed to be welcoming someone who I guessed would possibly be my mother, which made little sense because she was still here last night. I made it to the steps where everyone was sitting on, Nikki made a smiling gesture as she fingered her white diamond pendant around in her fingers, and she placed her arm around me as I sat down and kissed me on the cheek. But the biggest surprise was who was at the door. It was Jackson Holmes, he looked rather different. He had a large blue polo shirt on with neat khaki shorts and sandals, his hair was still tied back and his beard was starting to re-emerge again, seeing him gave me a happy/giddy feeling inside me, however next to him was a girl, that was dwarfed by Jackson's rather impressive stature. She appeared about our age if not older, and had long curly black hair, that went past her shoulders. She had bushy brown eyebrows like her father, but they were more feminie and suited her face rather well, she had an attractive round face that suited her wide brown eyes and thin black framed her glasses, and small button nose and large lips. She was wearing a formal like blue shirt with a skirt that went past her knees it was a green, tweedy type colour. Curiously however was that she was wearing something that resembled our wristbands however hers seemed to be rather larger and stretched over the palm of her and even a little bit above the top of her arm a couple of inches from her wrist, it had numerous displays and buttons that could be pressed and tweaked, all in all she looked rather formal however considering she was our age it made it look odd, it appeared to me that she was doing her best to make herself seemed odder, however she was attractive in a homely, book worm-ish way. Jackson boomed into the house and dropped his bags as he approached us all on the steps

"Hello kids, how are we all? Keeping well? What have we all been up to then?" we all looked at each other then curiously back at Jackson, who laughed and then looked suddenly taken aback

"Oh where are my manners, allow me to introduce my daughter, Carissa Holmes" his distinguished accent shining through as always. Carissa acknowledged us weakly as she swung her wristband around the room, tweaking knobs and dials here and there. She walked up to Leigh first (who was the closest to her) and looked him up and down sternly

"Pleasure to meet you ctuthlu, is that how you say it, ca-tooth-lu?" it appeared to me, that Leigh had finally got his name changed from bear to ctuthlu, I was about to ask but Shane interrupted me

"What's a ctuthlu?" Asked Shane, before Leigh answered Carissa Holmes interjected with an informative sort of tone

"A ctuthlu, Mr…Shane is; according to my read out is and ancient medieval demon who possessed the body of animals to torment mortals of the black ages, it was apparently quite a largely held belief, and was at one point believed to be the bringer of the black plague. Somehow this seemed someone suiting to Leigh, the demon form he turned into a couple of times would certainly earn such a title anyway; Leigh faced Shane and simply nodded. Carissa interrupted again

"Says here Leigh that your are a possible level four god-sent, quite impressive" we all looked at each other confusedly, godsents had levels now? However it was Linda who asked the question first

"What do you mean by level four?" she asked in an almost slight undertone of annoyance.

"Carissa looked at her father for a second who was busy talking to my mother and peter amusedly, until she stared at Linda blankly

"You mean you don't know?" we all shook our head in unison, and Carissa seemed to revel in our ignorance

"Well being one of the people that helped synthesize the system, I'm quite happy to explain. You see each godsent that has ever gained their powers, goes into this system right, hence all your code-names you all entered into our system for filing purposes, you're wristbands retain some of your genetic memory and is then sent into our systems for filing, which is then graded upon your ultimate potential i.e for destruction, saving mankind what ever floats your boat, but simply put, every godsent on the planet is graded on a scale of one to six, most don't make it over three, well not until this year, this year we have had a rather amount of escalating god sent levels" we all looked at each other in wonderment, I suppose it made sense, when I was fighting the Simkin he had stolen a piece of everyone's powers in the room, I guess that was the 'genetic memory' Carissa was talking about. Carissa continued

"So none of you have ever been graded?" we all shook our heads

"Would you like me to tell you now?" we all seemed to nod our head eagerly in unison, Nikki even squeezed my hand rather excitedly, Carissa swept her hand over Linda and looked on her display for a second, she winced her eyebrows a little confusedly for a second before she talked

"Well for you gothika, or Linda rather I'm getting two readings. I'm getting a basic level of three, which itself is rather impressive however I'm getting a potential reading of about five. Which is truly stunning, I've only ever met two fives in my life and they were both the heads of the house and m military department" Linda seemed rather pleased with herself and preened herself up. I thought about it for a second, Linda was one of the people who had been growing the strongest lately, well her and nikki seemed to be improving there powers the most. And in all honesty Linda had the biggest room to grow her powers, the scale of her powers were nearly limitless. Carissa moved on to Kyle who was leaning against a wall indifferently, she looked at him questionably as to ask him if he wanted to be done, he nodded silently and she swept her hand over Kyle again, after a few seconds.

"again another mixed reading, this ones even more confusing, it says here your supposed to be a level 2 speed godsent, which to be frank are rather common, however I'm getting a rather confused reaction that suggest another five maybe even six, which seems impossible, how can you change your genetic signature Mr hoffricter?" Kyle smiled a little under his hair and simply said

"I influenced it" Carissa looked at Kyle rather un-impressed

"Influenced it Kyle? I'm afraid that's quite impossible, the basic laws of a mutant gene as mapped by horatio Gast clearly state that mutant genes appear randomly and can appear to be changed upon subconscious needs; you cannot personally influence a gene Mr. Hoffricter" Kyle laughed derisively for a couple of seconds until he said rather (with a rather full head)

"Well, I'm telling you….you can, I'm living proof, your 'laws' need to be re-checked" Carissa laughed a little until she said dismissively

"Well if that is so, Kyle you happen to be one of the greatest scientific minds since horatio gast" I noticed Kyle smile dryly under his head which was still looking at the floor. I always knew Kyle was smart, sometimes even more than he let on, it was Kyle who after ten minutes managed to double the speed of a jet which was already going way to fast anyway, it was Kyle who figured out to program Teflon strips so we could sneak into the snake faction, and even more so it was Kyle who figured out that genes could be influenced, when he himself had done it. So I had no doubt given time Kyle would probably be able to sit and have an intelligent conversation with the professor, which from my experience was nearly impossible. Carissa moved onto Shane who was eagerly waiting his turn

"Ah…the blue flame, Shane riddle, let me see" she swung her wristband over Shane and pressed some buttons on her small keypad. She smiled and looked to Shane

"A level three flame entity, which is….impressive considering flame entities only ever really manage to get to level two. However, indeed level three" Shane looked rather shocked and hung his head to the ground, I could see how that would really affect Shane, Shane loved his powers, out of the most of us he used his powers more than any of us, and he was always the most proud of them, and here it was he got the lowest level of all us. However Carissa moved down the steps indifferently to our side of the steps, where she got to Adem, who was sitting on the second rung of the steps drawing on the cover of his journal we bought him. Until he noticed Carissa above him he smiled and nodded. Carissa repeated her usual process and suddenly put her hand up to her mouth and gasped

"Good heavens an empath, you are one of very few in the world Mr. Ultima, however curiously there seems to be some permanent damage to your mutant gland, It appears to have almost burnt out somewhat and working not at full capacity, perhaps your absorbed something that was to much for you? However that seems completely far fetched, normally and empath would reach about a five, but my readings giving you about a four because of your damaged gland. However it is indeed a pleasure to me meet you Mr, Adem" Adem smiled, and began to draw on his journal again as if nothing happened, Carissa looked a little surprised and moved on to nikki. I noticed however now that the adults were now watching Carissa scanning us.

"Your also a confusing case, but its always hard to judge raven faction people anyway, I'm getting a reading of about 2.5, which is purely based on the lack of offence your powers give you, nothing to be ashamed of though" nikki seemed a little annoyed at her result and began to look at her hands. She walked up to me and smiled, I was getting a little nervous she repeated the process and then looked at me rather annoyed

"Are you a friend, of all these people?" I nodded at her curious question and she looked at me rather annoyed

"I fail to see why you made me scan you if your human" I looked up to her with a confused look, I was now anything but human, I lost all sense of my humanity back in the fight with the Simkin, I went to open my mouth. But Jackson interrupted me as he climbed the stairs and placed a large hand around my shoulder

"Daughter, he's not a human. Your looking at Navar Keelan, a, k, a blood" Carissa recoiled herself looking at me and then to her display.

"But he has no wristband?" I answered her simply and quickly I was enjoying watching her panic

"Lost it in the fight with Simkin" she looked to her father who nodded as well, Carissa looked at me and pointed to the hair

"He doesn't fit his profile!" Jackson laughed and ruffled my new hairstyle

"He does have new hair, rather different isn't it boy, id ask how you got it, but to be honest I don't want to know" I laughed a little. And Jackson began to whisper into his daughter's ear, of course I could hear it, there was very little I couldn't hear if I concentrated enough. He said through muffled voices

"if, you place all known data on blood and scan him again based on the data you had, and compare it with this dates data you should be able to tally a result" she waved her father off and said in a know-it-all sort of way

"Father I knew that already, if you give me a second Navar Keelan I should be able to give you a result. And not that it matters now, but I read about you in the future press, it's a pleasure to meet you Mr Keelan" she typed for a couple of seconds until she swept the wristband over me several times, before typing something else in and then with almost the same reaction she had with Adem she paused for a second to show her father the result who shrugged his shoulders and laughed

"Doesn't surprise me darling, I've seen what this kid can do" she looked at me even more stunned still trying to a grasp of the words that were in her mouth, until she finally mustered up the courage to talk

"You…you: Navar Keelan are an omega mutant. There has never been an omega mutant before, the idea itself is merely a theory, but I suppose the data doesn't lie, as of this point, right now, you could possibly be the most powerful godsent alive" I coughed a little bit, and through a shocked voice I asked

"You have got to be kidding?" she shook her head and began to walk down the steps as Jackson knelt down to my level

"Think about it son, think about what the professor told you, you really think she's lying?" I clenched my fist and shook my head, I stared at my arms. And at my web shaped scar, I knew I was powerful, but the most powerful mutant alive? That was preposterous, however if I took into account what the professor told me about my genetic make up and my so called 'limitless potential' I guess he was right, but it still took me back. I was still recoiling in my mind until Nikki seemed to notice my distress

"Hey navvy, good for you…" I looked at her; my eyes must have shown my still utter disbelief in the entire situation because she began to re-assure me even more

"Hey think of it this way, I'm currently dating the most powerful godsent alive" I laughed weakly and sat there staring at my arms. I always knew I had responsibility, but what would the world expect from the most powerful mutant alive, surely if people were to find out that I was they would expect me to do something great, to inspire many with my glorious example. It seemed like way to much pressure; its true with great power so indeed does great responsibility. I sighed and focused my attention back to the foyer just in time for Linda to ask a question

"So why are you here anyway Mr Jackson" who was since debating with his daughter the possibility of Kyle's discovery, Jackson it seemed had every bit of confidence in Kyle, which truly seemed to cheer Kyle up, from his mysterious (and possibly dangerous) hair I noticed a smile

"Oh I'm just here to escort my daughter, you may not know but my daughter is quite the intellectual, she is the youngest ever to be elected into the house of m's research and information department, as she said she also helped devise the power rating system you have just been rated by" Mr Jackson beamed at us, obviously rather proud of his daughter, who to me still appeared to have no power. Mr Jackson continued

"Anyway she's been sent down to observe and possibly investigate the recent going ons" I looked at Nikki confused who looked at me the same way

"What do you mean recent going ons Mr Jackson? Asked Shane, who still appeared to be quite down by the revelation of his power level, Mr. Jackson looked over all of us rather confused and pulled out a bunch of papers which from where I were standing I could see said "the future press"

" Well this should answer it" he handed us all a paper, why he had so many copies of the paper was a question I didn't even bother to ask myself I was too stunned by the headline:

FIFTH GOD SENT MISSING:

_Last night, according to sources a Derek Zachariah, whom was on vacation in Sydney is reportedly missing this makes the fifth child god-sent to go missing in this month alone, and it all appears to be happening around the state of Sydney Australia, the House Of M at this point has made no comment, but has reportedly dispatched the according teams to research this horrible set of circumstances, and has asked that anyone who has information regarding the missing persons, to please contact them immediately. _

_The even stranger occurrence has been that all those that have been reportedly missing wristwatches have mysteriously gone offline. This is the largest scandal to hit the god society since the defeat of the organization nearly over a decade ago. More information will be brought to you as it comes to us. _

The ink yet again in that odd red ink that seemed to grab your attention whenever you looked at it, I looked around the room. Nikki was just staring at the paper with a blank expression; Adem was reading the paper furiously for information. Linda and Leigh were looking at each other shocked, Kyle had since stormed out of the room furiously, I imagine seeing this would have been the final nail on his coffin so to speak, he was already feeling helpless. Now knowing people like us were being apparently kidnapped would not help him to feel any better about himself. And Shane just clenched his paper in his fist and his hand was burning, he had a furious expression on his face that was rather scary. However in me, something else burned a strengthened resolve, the feeling overwhelmed me, the feeling of excitement and pride, I'd show the world what the most powerful mutant in the world can do, tonight I'm going to roam Sydney to make sure no one else gets taken, and perhaps even find where they were taken. There was no doubt in my mind that this was my course in my action. Tonight I help.

CHAPTER 9

Shadows in the dark

I stood in front of the mirror looking at myself trying to decide, decide what to wear; if I was at all serious about finding what or who was kidnapping all these godsent's I was going to need a costume so I wouldn't be linked back to me, because I promised I wouldn't use my powers outside of battle. I needed a new identity, a superhero identity, but what? I let my body relax fully I let go of everything and tried to think of a costume. I closed my eyes and felt my body changing around me; discarding the clothes I was wearing and altering my entire presence of self. I could feel myself ceasing to be…myself I felt around my body, it was shifting and changing becoming something not human. I opened my eyes (well at least what I assumed were my eyes) what appeared to me was the same grotesque visage that I saw when I saw my reflection in a pool of blood in the battle against the Simkin. I was at least a foot taller than I was before; my body was blood red that rippled and shifted all over my body, the blood suit arcing here and there over my body, and as before from my chest shined an odd fiery luminesce, my face was cruel and slightly elongated, I had cruel long white teeth which had a red tongue whipping around them, from the side of my head trailed two white patterns that I assumed where my eyes, the resembled something like spider-man's mask eyes but cruel and elongated with cruel jagged edges that trailed off the side of my head to meet at the top. I brought my hands up to the mirror, they no longer resembled hands and were more like elongated claws, my fingers where at least the triple length they usually were and finished in a spiky serrated and sharp ends that looked like it could stab straight through a brick wall with minimal fuss. I stared at this grotesque villain in front of me, it looked like the things out a little child's nightmare and only now did I notice the odd black colour that was fraying around every edge and point of the creature. I wondered to myself, was this my true self, was I now staring at the true me, this horrible visage, this ugly unlovable demon in front of me. I wondered to myself what Nikki would think if she was to walk in at this moment, what would anyone think if they looked at me right now? Would they ever think of me as me again? The monster that appeared in the reflection of the mirror looked forlorn (as forlorn as a monster can) I clenched my clawed hand into a thin brutal fist. And pushed my thoughts away from this monster in front of me, regardless if this was my powers true form, this thing in front of me was not me, this was not the true representation of my heart, soul and will. And besides in a practical point I couldn't go prowling around town in this, if anyone was to see it, It could probably cause old people to have heart attacks. I needed to think I needed a costume, something, anything I thought of the blood suit I used to wear. My body reacted instantly shimmering and re-changing itself. Until what now stared in front of me was a new monster, however this one seemed more familiar, more friendly (if that's at all possible) it was the same black sinew-covered grotesquely cruel creature I had gotten to know quite well, however as seemed to be the usual new style of my powers everything had a certain black hue too it. But even this would not do, well it would almost do but it still looked too…inhuman I concentrated hard on removing the black membrane that oozed around the suit. It begrudgingly accepted, it didn't seem too like the idea of relinquishing such. With the black sinew removed the suit started too look somewhat more human, it was red, with black tipped claws and on every point on my body, now it simply looked too plain. Almost like dare-devil I really had no intention of going through the entire marvel roster before finding a costume but I was becoming stumped. I took a breath and reached inside my senses, I let my body take over, moulding itself. I opened my eyes, what stood before me was a vision that was quite unique. I was still the base red. My fingers were still clawed. My eyes still trailed up in the odd jagged way, however I had black outlines over all my muscle lines, over my chest stretched a large logo that covered most of my torso it was black, and resembled almost something of a spider but it was cruel and spiked. From my waist a black trailed from my but into a pointed demonic looking tribal tattoo near my feet. And my fore arm was covered in the same black colour that trailed into the same demonic style tattoo somewhere near the end of my calf. It looked good, it looked like me. I smiled and my black hole for a mouth opened. It appeared my mouth had become a part of my face itself, which when opened pointed into cruel monstrous teeth. I pulled one arm to touch my face and a spiked spear sprung from my elbow joint, and retracted when I put it back down. I moved around, as usual it felt exactly like my body. I willed my body to remember this costume into memory, and tried to do something I had only ever done once again, I stared at my clothes on the floor, and memorized them. And then willed myself back to my normal form, hopefully with the clothes on, to my absolute amazement it worked, I resembled myself down to the exact tee. I smiled and ruffled my hair, I was in a small way glad to be staring at myself, even the new hair and odd black web scar I had.

I creaked out to the hall way as silently as I could, last time I checked the time it was 11:00, not that late, but by this time normally had people gone to their own rooms or were watching stuff in the TV room, it also seemed rather absurd to me to have a room purely dedicated to a TV, but I suppose having a house with so many rooms you really had to get specific. I made it to the stairway with very little ease. However what greeted me on the roof something completely odd. Where there was once the clean white brick and tiles, and beautiful garden, was now short field grass. I felt it in my fingers as it blew in the wind and it felt completely normal, why would there be field grass on the roof? It seemed completely un-explainable to me. However now was not the time to think about this oddity, I had to focus as something I had overlooked until this point came suddenly became an issue. My house was on one side of Sydney harbour and the main central business district was on the other side, which was where that Derek Zachariah got taken and as such I assumed would be the best place to start. I morphed into my suit, It still felt the same, however two tentacles with spiked and fishhook ends sprouted from my back and started whipping around in the cool breeze. I looked past my house, along the way in sporadic areas were other mansions lining the coast of the harbour, they lead all the way up to the bridge which was my best chance of crossing into the c.b.d all of the roof's appeared almost the same design as mine, so I decided I would have to jump from house to house until I got to the bridge. And as a last measure I closed my eyes and found that part of my brain I always kept shielded. And lifted the blocks, it felt like I had just been thrown into icy water, but it was a good feeling, and as if my entire body had taken a big breath I could sense everything around me, I could hear the water lapping against the edge of the harbour beyond. I could sense the tiny heartbeat of the pigeon up ahead of me, it was now or never, I felt myself shake in excitement and my scar itched a little, and suddenly it came through so it now showed on the suit as well, I didn't mind it kind of suited the costume. I ran forward in the direction off the bridge, the odd field grass almost seeming repulsed by my stepping on it, my strides speeding me faster with every step. I past the pool and within a couple of meters I reached the edge of the building and luckily my instincts took over, my body flipped me over onto the two tentacles sprouted from my back, and rode my recoil shooting me out like a bullet onto the next house, which was about a couple of hundred meters away, I had to think about this. I was flying through the air and I needed a way to control myself, I thought of the idea of flying, but after my last experience that seemed a little bit too traumatic I wheeled myself around in the air; the house was still a little bit away. I didn't want to send out a tentacle, because it might damage the house in front of me. So I shot out a snare, it connected on the broadside of the house, it was a spiral of black and red, I yanked myself forward on the snare line and I jumped forward with phenomenal speed, shooting forward to the next house. I landed with a thump, several tentacles sprouting around me to stop me from falling over, I jumped off the house to the next one, this time snaring off a rather large tree, and riding the swing of the snare until shooting another one and kicking in the air to ride feet forward to the next building, I was enjoying myself immensely I almost managed to hit the side of the next house but my tentacles shot out flipping me up so I landed spider-like on the next building I was nearly there. I ran again whipping out two snares on separate trees. Sling shotting me to the next building. This time I landed easily, I was almost in the shadow of the bridge now. There was only one house to go. Which I could make by jumping, I flipped gloriously in the air and landed gracefully on the building. I was now in the shadow of the amazing bridge. I gripped onto the flagpole next to me and snared myself on to the bridge I yanked forward with a massive recoil. I made it onto the massive steel structure and gripped myself to the side, I was still getting used to perception of not always sitting upright, I couldn't hear any cars in the distance which meant it was free for me to swing freely I flipped onto my hands and pushed myself off the bridge and swung into the centre of it. The bridge was free from cars; it was a truly amazing experience swinging along the bridge, this behemoth of a bridge free from anything, but a lone person swinging from blood snare to blood snare. I reached the end of the bridge and swung myself in a wide arc so I was on the top of the bridge, I was suddenly aware of how high I was, I could see all over Sydney the lights blinking on and off all completely un-aware of my presence. It finally dawned on me that I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing. I was enjoying the freedom, I was enjoying the air whipping around me, I suppose to anyone but me it would be freezing, but it was as-per-usual just the strange feeling of my body telling me that it should be cold. I decided I should probably make a decision, maybe as simply as a direction will do. My senses told me that to the left I could hear faint noises of hustle and bustle so I decided if there was going to be any sort of wrong-doings it was probably be away from people. I ran off the top of the building and nose dived off. The world whipped around me as I fell. From my shoulder blades whipped out two snares catching themselves on to the side of two buildings I rode the recoil a little and then swung out a blood snare thrusting me forward along the side of the tall buildings, at the end of the swing I stretched out a snare to the top of one of the buildings and flipped myself to the top of the tall glass building. I stopped to take a deep breath, and looked around; there were still very little signs off life. I paced around the building digging deep into my senses and opening myself up to any thing that would be an alarm, I couldn't hear anything but a lone security guard singing too himself inside the building. I could feel a flutter of tiny hearts as a flock of birds flew past me. I decided it was best for me to move to another building, I ran off the building and jumped to one across the street. This one contained several more workers whose heart beats were slightly erratic, which I guessed was from stress (considering they were still at work at this hour). Suddenly the thought came to me, if I found the police station I could find out where the action is. Only problem being I didn't know where the police station was, it was going to be a long night, however I didn't mind it was good enough just to have this sort of freedom. I swung past two buildings before I noticed myself in the side of a rather reflective building. I looked rather odd, somehow graceful swinging from blood snare too blood snare. My suit looked odd and cruel as if a demon was masquerading as Spiderman. I swung through some more buildings until I flipped myself onto the top of a rather black looking building, and landed on a rooftop garden, I retracted my mask (or possibly face) and wiped my face and pushed my hair out of my face as I sat down on a chair of tentacles. I yelled out to the nothing around me

"This is useless!" I jumped off my chair of tentacles and began to walk around, suddenly from nowhere I heard the distant sound of something that sounded like an alarm. However if It was distant for me It had to be a rather way away. I sling shotted my way in the distance. Travelling over a small park as I did and I landed on a odd triangular building, the alarm was rather louder. I jumped off pelting myself closer to the distance of the siren. It was close now. I jumped to another building; it was just around the corner now. I flipped around whipping a tentacle out to push me towards it. I landed on the building side adjacent to it, the sound was coming from a bank, and I pushed the sound out of my mind a little bit because it was distracting me. I had arrived just in time. From the large long steps people were running down into a rather shotty looking car. I wondered to myself the best course of action. The car was starting up, I had to stop it I shut out a flow of blood snare it gripped from the back fender to the pavement, the car pulled forward to no avail, I could see the substance beginning to harden to an asphalt cross metallic substance, I found this rather curious, left unchecked my web snare hardened to the substance it touched, I imagined this was the idea of it absorbing every possible element it comes in contact with that the professor mentioned, of course I knew this, but seeing it in action was simply awesome. However I had little time left because my danger sense was starting to flare up. The five people got out of the car. They were all wearing balaclavas and the same white shirts, how cute; uniformity. They were all the same muscle bound men. They looked around for a while trying to figure out why there car had stopped, the thinnest of the men soon found the problem

"Hey boss, I found the problem, our cars like stuck to the floor or something." He had a weaselly voice and his heart rate was starting to speed up rapidly. The largest of the men boomed his way to the source of the problem throwing the thinner man off the problem like he was nothing more than trash.

"What the hell is this crap? It's like metal asphalt. Oh this is just per-fect! Now we have no getaway car, and here we all are stuck holding sacks of money looking perfectly red handed." He had a gruff and mean voice, and he through his hands in the air as he violently kicked the odd substance that had cemented the car to the road. I smiled, I was rather enjoying this situation, and my body seemed to be revelling into the malevolency of it, I stopped only to grow a tentacle to scratch my scar, which again was itching. When one of the men who was patrolling his perimeter stupidly looked up. He yelled out instantly

"BOSS, BOSS!! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? ON THE WALL?" the largest man stomped his way to get a better view of me, and I heard him sneer silently

"who cares no witnesses!" he swung up his large gun, too meet me, naturally I was already two steps ahead, when the gun fire pelted into the side of the building, I was already flipping myself through the air and then landed on the car in my usual spider stance, I flipped over and had the urge to toy with them for a bit

"Seriously, a bank guys? Why don't you just start getting dressed in the white and black stripy jail uniforms now?" most of them were just staring at me in awe, probably having absolutely no idea what the hell they were looking at. The large man grunted at me and pulled out a knife that he swung at me instantaneously, with a surprising amount of skill, naturally I avoided it with a little amount of ease. I back flipped kicking him into the car. And landing a meter or so away from the gob smacked group, one of the men I hadn't heard talk yet stammered himself into talking

"Wha-what, what are you-ou" I laughed and sprung tentacles from my back

"The long arm of the law?" a couple of them looked at me but had little time to notice me opening a palm and shooting out several snares all grabbing there guns. And throwing them behind me they landed on a wall and I snared them so they stuck there but did my best to make them not solidify against the wall when I severed the connection, the police would probably need it for evidence. The boss got himself up from the car and thundered his way through the rest of the group

"What the hell is wrong with you people? Get that thing!" most of the other men rubbed the back of there heads sheepishly as they cautiously grabbed their daggers from the side of their pants. I laughed, and threw up my hands in a cocky manner as my tentacles with their bladed ends snaked around in the air

"Careful don't run with knives, there worse than scissors you know" I didn't know what was forcing me to be so full of myself but I was rather enjoying it. One of the smaller men rushed at me first, the others following, I flipped over the small man, jumping to kick another down as I jumped off the side of him and then jumping on two of their heads before landing on the car again. I was still enjoying toying with them so I snared the first one to the ground, again making sure the snare didn't take on any new characteristics. He squirmed underneath it

"Ugh, what the hell is this stuff; it feels as hard as metal. BOSS….!" The boss simply grunted in his recognition of his name. As he reorganised the rest of his people to advance on me again. I swung two snares from each wrist that linked around the four people's who were left ankles and yanked it from under them causing them to trip over. They all rolled over and rubbed there heads until the boss held his arms up in an obvious attempt to emit surrender

"Look, what do you want? You want money, well give you half if you just let us go" I smiled, which scared a little of them, I imagined the site of my cruel teeth would have been rather intimidating I shot some bladed tentacles through the car and pulled the money cases through the roof,

"What you mean this money?" the boss squirmed a little, as if I just took away his favourite toy, his eyes firmly set upon the money, I laughed and launched them over to were the guns were, and shot out a snare so they stayed glued to the wall as well. The boss screwed up his eyes from what I could see under the balaclava he wasn't happy. He threw the knife at me, I let it flow straight through me, as I felt the odd sensation of the wound around the knife turning a little metallic, I tried to make sure I kept myself the same element I was at the moment, and my body simply returned back to normal, two of the others began to stagger backwards in fear, and the guy who was still stuck in the floor began to scream and trying to gnaw at the snare that was holding him to the ground. I laughed to myself I had yet to find a substance that could destroy my blood snares. The boss pulled off his balaclava, he had a square muscular face with hard chiselled features and a scar over one eye, he had short curly brown hair and a large fat nose, with a cruel sneering smile.

"What the heck are you…kid?" what did he mean kid? Did I look like a kid in this, I started looking at myself I didn't think I did.

"Who you calling kid?" I pointed a finger which shot out two snares that grabbed the two who were trying to run away to the same wall I had glued everything else too. The man lunged at me, I flipped off the car and shot myself forward sending two tentacles out of the side of my arms to catch the other two who were still just standing there in awe, I pushed them a little higher then the two who were already stuck to the wall and stuck them there as well. Now all that was left was the boss of this two-bit organization. He lunged at me with his meaty hands which I easily ducked under laughing

"You know if you wanted to wrestle you should of just asked, but I will have to go home and get the blue spandex" the boss grunted more, obviously my toying with him was only making him angry. I flipped over him and kicked him into the car and snared him too it, I allowed that one to harden to an odd glass and steel-like substance. And not a moment too soon, I thought I saw a flash from the back of me somewhere, and then I heard police sirens. It was time for me to leave. I jumped up and shot two snares too the opposite sides of the buildings and slingshot myself to the top of the building with the court yard. I stopped to recall. I felt amazing, I felt alive. My whole body was pulsing with a weird sense of glee; however my scar was itching like crazy I called out into the darkness

"What the hell is this thing anyway?" as I scratched it with my claw like fingers, which were lacerating the suit around the scar, however the scar remained the same. I stared down at the scene it was rather amusing, there were five people all trying to squirm out of the blood red goo they were all stuck to the ground and wall retrospectively the police were just arriving and most of them were constantly looking around the scene trying to figure out what the hell was going on, except one man who wasn't in a uniform, but black pants and a leather jacket who was fingering the red goo around the guns curiously, I heard the robbers shouting something about a monster stopping them. And other obscene references, I decided it was time to leave. I looked dipped into my sight and saw my odd 3d vision there was nothing around me. I retracted my mask and took a seat in one of the seats that was swathed in darkness. I retracted my senses so they were operating on minimal level, just enough to hear if anything was coming but not enough so I felt every heart beat of every bird that flew past. Finally my scar stopped itching. However the itching feeling in the back of my head began to flare up again, I looked around me, nothing but shadows in the dark. I got up and reset my mask and began to swing my way home. I was really starting to get the hang of the swinging, by alternating between snaring against sides of buildings and zipping across ones which I snare to the tops of buildings I could really get a rather fast pace, not to mention having the ability to whip out a tentacle whenever I needed to change direction. I made it to bridge quicker than I imagined. I turned to looked over the city It seemed to be asleep there were very few lights on now, just the mandatory ones, even the birds were quieter, I noticed a rustling in the bushes on a rooftop garden in a block of flats over looking the bridge but I payed it no heed, most probably simply a cat, I really didn't want to give shadows in the dark anymore credit then they were due, since the whole Simkin thing, I was still a little scared of shadows. But it was no time to be scared it was now a time to be excited, I was free! I just saved a bank from being robbed and the feeling felt great, I felt exhilarated it truly felt great to do my own heroic deeds on my terms. I wasn't being forced to save someone, nor was I being bombarded by a myriad of different challengers in a competition I didn't want to join in into in the first place (not that I didn't enjoy it in the end) but I suppose the competition did give me the house here, which truly has changed my life. I wondered what people reactions would be, I imagined Shane would be interested if not envious; Kyle probably wouldn't talk to me again. Linda would ramble on the ramifications of my actions; Leigh would probably be on Shane's side as well. Adem would probably smile and pat me on the back, and the rest, the adults and Carissa, well I didn't even want to think how they would act. It didn't matter I didn't intend to tell them anytime soon. It was time to head back, I jumped off the edge of the bridge fearlessly and shot out some tentacles to push me forward in the direction of the house, I was flown forward like a bullet. I really had to test my strength one day. I jumped from house to house with little ease. I even managed to squeeze in some more acrobatics this time, I managed to ride the recoil from a flag pole on the second to last house so I was flying directly at the house with a massive amount of speed, but I wanted more, I allowed myself to open up to my instincts my body started to feel more hollow, I could feel the wind beginning to flow through me, not around me. It was a completely odd feeling. I was so involved in the feeling I forgot to see where I was going, and I had completely ignored my danger sense. The ground came in fast and quick, I was waiting for the thump, the sound that would wake everyone up and put an end to my brilliant charade before it even started, however It never came, I opened my eyes to find myself falling through brick itself, my body felt hard yet porous as if I was brick itself, I went to scream but nothing came out and before I knew it I had fallen through the ceiling and almost onto the floor of my room. I could feel my body starting to resemble its normal texture now. And instinctively my body threw out some tentacles to cushion my fall. I got up and returned to my usual clothes. And stared up at the roof, somehow, impossibly I just fazed through the roof by total mistake. Sometimes, well ok all the time; the scope of my powers scared me, and this was just another example of it, what if I was to one day I lose concentration and simply faze halfway through the floor? Not to mention the sheer physic bending ideas those were involved with phasing through objects. I shook my head and looked at the clock. It was 6am great. I changed into my boxers (which seemed pointless coz I was essentially naked but with my powers creating clothes) I still wasn't used to the whole idea of my body creating clothes for me, and besides I was more comfortable wearing clothes anyway. I fell asleep quickly the feeling of exhilaration running through me. Pausing every now and again to scratch my infuriating web-scar which was by now becoming a complete nuisance

CHAPTER TEN

The blood spider

I got very little sleep; you could even say none. I was tossing and turning all night. I needed sleep, I had gotten to bed so late, but everything was keeping me up, the noises outside. The whistling of the wind. I was really finding it hard to sleep. Finally I think I got to sleep, at least a mild sleep. When there was a creak outside my door, I rolled my eyes I didn't want to wake up. I needed more sleep, and I didn't care what was outside my door. I just needed more sleep. I rolled onto my stomach in an effort to ignore the presence, until something light but sharp tickled my back. I groaned and tried to sleep, the annoyance proceeded to annoy me further, violent thoughts flooded through my head until I pushed them out of my mind, however now my scar was so itchy I could no longer ignore the presence by pretending to sleep.

"Ugh…what?" I groaned with my face still face down into the matrass. I felt an energising force surround me, as soon as that happened I knew who it was, there was something about nikki, her presence seemed to always make me feel…better, stronger somehow, as if I could wrap my head around everything I could do, I could sense myself better, like I was in a hot room but there was a cool breeze over my face. I rolled over. There it was it was beautiful as-per-usual, it was her, her face was always beautiful. She smiled to me and punched me in the gut a little

"Wake up sleepy head!" I rolled my eyes and sunk my head into my pillow again.

"…No…no I don't think I will…" and I swung my arm over my eyes in defence

"…It's past nine wake up…" I could feel the wind pick up around my body. I guessed that she was extending her wings; I opened my eyes her beautiful angelic wings were protruding out from her perfect back. Strangely only two were extended knowing she had the capability to draw on six, this seemed odd to me. I really wanted to sleep, I know my body didn't need it, and there was nothing about my system that needed sleep, it was only my mind that wanted sleep. She pulled her wings from under me, and lifted me up with them. Until I was standing on my bed with my feet planted on it cushiony surface, I finally looked down at nikki now (considering I had no choice) she was wearing a white and blue striped bikini with matching bottoms, and a see-through black sarong tie-around. Her beautiful tanned torso looking as stunningly seductive as usual, I stared at her (doing my best not to be dragged into her beauty) and rolled my eyes and outstretched my arms

"What!?" I yelled at her playfully as I flipped out of the bed acrobatically, Nikki pirouetted her way over to me as she playfully ran her fingers across the wall

"Well…seeming as it's so late in the morning…and not to mention the day, I was wondering as you can tell by my…fantastic attire" she did a little stance as she displayed herself, I think I blushed a little and still said nothing. I really didn't know what to say

"Well…I thought we could go swimming, you do know you have a pool here right, besides it would be nice to go swimming without my parents watching me and comparing me to jade's 'perfect' swimming strokes, you know swimming for fun, there's such a thing right?" I smiled to her and shrugged. I've only been swimming a couple of times, and It was weird the last time I didn't like it much anyway, my body felt odd, and it was hard to concentrate on keeping myself solid, and not to ooze into a solid form. However I did enjoy it beside my powers freaking out on me, the experience was enjoyable. Besides just being in Nikki's presence gave me the sense I could do anything I put my mind too.

"Uh…swimming? Yeah ok…are the others coming too? She shrugged her perfect shoulders as she walked out of the room

"I dunno, it's a free country navvy, but I want to see your ass out there in ten minutes or I'm flying you out there myself solider boy!" her wings folded back into her back and became nothingness again. I watched her walk out of the room before I decided to get dressed, I knew she had left because it suddenly felt like I had the wind beaten out of me, all my self suddenly felt heavier and all my problems flooded into my mind like someone had pulled out a plug. I wondered to myself, what was it about Nikki that gave such an odd impression upon me, was it love? Or was it something entirely different? Regardless it didn't matter, the wonderful feeling was gone. I marched myself now utterly sombre over to my cupboard and put on some swimming board shorts. This time they were actually a pair of shorts, not just a pair I managed to manifest from my own powers. I trudged my way outside until I noticed my body in a mirror, yet again it seemed different. It seemed paler than usual, and it looked like there were darker lines around my muscles, I shrugged it off to probably a light oddity. And made my way to the pool

The light shined down on the roof heavily, besides being only about ten o clock it seemed about one, many people were already on the roof. Kyle was holing himself up in the corner of the pool, watching his stick float in the water as he played with his potted Venus-fly trap, still as he has been recently, paying to attention to nobody, and staring into the sky. Leigh had turned his feet into webbed contraptions and was wading around the rather-large pool with ease, Linda was in a corner next to Adem shaping water sculptures with her mind, as Adem was trying to do the same but could merely managed to do anything but make a measly water fountain. Jackson Holmes was in one corner on a sun chair, he had his shirt off and was basking in the sun with large black sun glasses on, and by the look of it he seemed to have a rather difficult time managing his body on the comparatively small sun chair. However he lifted his sunglasses up and smiled to me as he waved his arms to gather his balance again

"Morning there Navar, how are you boy? Carissa sends her regards, but she's off in investigating something or rather. Something about last night, nevertheless good morning Mr. Omega" I blushed and rubbed the back of the back of my head sheepishly

"Uh…thanks…and err good morning to you Mr. Jackson" he smiled and waved to me and pushed his sunglasses back on. I walked over to the pool and gulped in some air and dipped my toe into the water, it was cool, but a nice kind of cool, it was refreshing. I pulled my toe and looked over everyone who was around the pool in opposite areas. I was willing myself to go into the water when I felt a push from my back and before I knew it I was falling face first into a barrage of water.

"Oh just go in you wiener" I had enough time to turn around and spy an eye on my culprit, just as I guessed it was a evil-smiling nikki who waved at me mischievously. The water flowed around me, grabbing at my every region with its cold shock, I span around underneath the water to get me bearings, when suddenly that sense that everything was suddenly washed over me again. And I finally got control of my bearings, my body hardened to its normal texture and I kicked myself up to the surface, to be greeted by several people laughing at me

"Aww... navvy you ok?" asked Linda playfully. I coughed out some water and nodded. Adem swum over to me, and asked me if I needed assistance, I shook my head and thanked him for the offer. And swam my way over to Nikki who was on the other side of the pool. When I made it to her I splashed her playfully, she seemed to know it was coming and a wing from her back shielded her from the blast of water. The wing sliced through the water like a knife. She pulled her wings back and dived under me I noticed her under the water, she was using her wings as a swimming device and it seemed to be working perfectly, I looked over to Kyle who was still playing with his Venus fly-trap plant, and he gave no notice to me, so I decided to join the others. I tried to actually swim this time, and my body seemed to make itself more water-dynamic and I was going faster with every stroke until I made it to the group, Nikki jumping out from behind me, floating in the air a little until folding her wings into herself and diving back into the ground. I turned to Leigh, Linda and Adem and smiled, it was at this point I noticed someone missing. Shane wasn't here

"Hey guys where is Shane?" they all looked at each other and shrugged as they treaded water, all except Linda who seemed to simply be floating into the water. Nikki by now had emerged from the depths of the water as well and noticed us all confusedly looking at each other, and pointed to the back area of the house.

"Last time I saw Shane he was all flustered and heading out the back, why?" I shrugged my shoulders and looked at everyone else, until Linda said snickeringly

"I bet he just doesn't like water anyway, you know he wouldn't be able to use his powers very well in a pool" I smiled at Linda and nodded slightly, as much as I hated to admit it, she was probably right, Shane didn't really seem like the type that would like water

"Yeah your probably right… anyway I might try and find him, he shouldn't miss out on something like this" I pulled myself out of the pool with the help of tentacles, which felt a little jelly-like which I assumed was most probably because of my exposure to water. My questions were soon answered, I peered down to the back yard of the mansion and in the middle of the fighting area was a flaming aura, I heard Shane scream out in rage, his aura was different now, and it was streaking up vertically as if he was doing his best to get the most optimum power he could. I guessed everyone else had head the scream as well because they were looking at me. I shrugged at them but relayed to them that I would take care of it. I jumped off nosediving the ground reaching me at amazing speeds, until I swung out some tentacles to cushion my floor; I bounced off them, and flipped around to land on my feet. Shane still hadn't noticed me and was still increasing his flame aura exponentially, the area around him shimmered with heat lines, the plants glowing a blue whenever some of the flames touched them, and I guessed this was the 'protection' peter had mentioned, I tried to move closer to Shane but it was getting hard, I was meeting a lot of heat resistance, my body threw out two tentacles that whipped out around my back and grabbed some of the hedges near me for support. I was bracing to pull myself forward when suddenly it all stopped, the heat receded, the force receded, there was nothing left but what was supposed to be and Shane, I looked over to where he was, he was on all fours and panting. He looked really tired; I stepped forward over to him cautiously,

"Shane dude, are you ok?" he took a deep breath and paused a little until he looked up to me, his face was hardened with determination and was soaked in sweat

"Rothkin, my name is rothkin now, Shane was weak, Rothkin will be, will be…strong!" he roared and threw his arms into the air and clenched his muscles and his whole body erupted in blue flame again, however the flames seemed to have a darker tinge to them than they usually had. I shook my head it was probably a mere illusion. Flames were lapping around everywhere Shane, I mean Rothkin was still trying to go higher; my tentacles around my back were whipping out plumes of flame that spread near me. I tried to call out to Shane but I couldn't get a response, and my body was telling that the ground was starting to get hot, really hot. And all around me started to feel colder. Which seemed rather curious considering all the blue-hot flames swirling around me, Shane was starting to float higher into the air as his flame aura was still growing, he yelled out again and they burst out again, growing even larger, the flames on his head plumed almost a meter above his head. As did his fists. The odder thing was the darker colour his flames had taken on, usually a bright electric blue; they were now a dark blue. I was almost awe-inspired until the heat receded again. And Shane came tumbling back to earth; he rolled off his back and onto his hands and knees. He coughed a couple of times and took a few deep breaths until he started laughing heartily from under his deep breaths as he fell onto his back. I stepped over to him as I looked down on to him he smiled at me weakly

"I'll show…them…what a level three…can do. Shane was weak…rothkin will be strong!" and he simply laid there on the grass I looked at Shane and bent down to his level and placed a hand on his shoulder. This was all about Shane's godsent rating, sure he had gotten the lowest of us, but no one really cared about their ratings did they? I guess Shane had really taken his to heart. He really seemed to be trying hard to change it. But how could he change it? I didn't think the ratings could be changed? I simply smiled at Shane and looked up in to the air

"That was pretty impressive Shane err rothkin" Shane rolled onto his hands and got up as he cracked his knuckles

"Yeah I guess it was, I could of sworn I was drawing heat from somewhere too, I bet if I had some green fire I could increase my rating…" and he simply started rambling to himself about all the different ways he could increase his power rating. I simply rolled my eyes and tried to make it look like I was paying attention until there was a yell from the door

"Nav, Shane guys you have to take a look at this!" it was Linda, and she seemed to think whatever it was we were supposed to look at it was quite important. I looked over to Shane who seemed to simply be more annoyed that he was interrupted in his brainstorming session. I gestured towards the door, and he simply nodded as we trudged off in the direction of the door.

When we made it inside everyone was sitting around the TV room staring at the rather overly-large TV. I looked around at someone for an explanation of what we were watching. But I was soon answered as I stared at the screen and I saw a camera pan over the very bank I had stopped from being robbed last night, I gulped in some air. I was most defiantly in trouble, I fantasized a million House Of M troops bursting through the walls of the house to come and arrest me this very minute, but much to my surprise the TV kept going on, I focused myself on listening

"_And so here is the scene of the foiled robbery which took place some time late last night, apparently this was the very same culprits in a string of robberies state-wide, however as fortuitous as this may be the more interesting this is the mysterious circumstances surrounding the robberies foiling. Police are tight-lipped to reveal any specific circumstances but sources reveal that the hero was some sort of, 'spider-man type' hero. We have an exclusive picture taken by one of the culprits with us at this moment…and it appears to be as we said some sort of spider-man type character that the media has dubbed 'the blood spider' due to his red appearance" I_ rolled my eyes again, how many god damn times was I going to be referred to spider-man, I was clearly not spider-man, I didn't even look anything like spider-man! I cursed the bloody ignorant people of the media. Until I really sunk my head into the ramifications of what just happened, I had become known, was this a good thing? Or a bad thing? I wasn't really sure, I wished I had someone to confide into but I had no-one I sighed and noticed the shocked expressions of everyone around me.

"Hey you don't reckon it actually spider-man do you?" asked Leigh to the consensual audience, I couldn't take it, I needed to interject, I couldn't stand being referred to spider-man one more time

"Oh come on…It doesn't look anything like spider-man, besides you couldn't see anything anyway, It could be anything!" Leigh looked at me with a rather puzzled look on his face and responded in a stupor

"Yeah…buddy your…right, nothing like him…" I pouted and threw myself in a chair. Beside Nikki who was the next to speak

"Well jeez what do you guys think it is? Just some sort of masked vigilante?" I wanted to make a reaction but I knew I couldn't lest give away the total ruse in the first place

"If you ask me, it's just another person doing the job WE should be doing" said Kyle angrily as he picked up his stick and began to walk away in quite a temper. Linda spoke next

"I dunno, I reckon it's kind of cool don't you guys? That there's someone out there taking care of all the people we can't, it's kind of gallant don't you reckon?" Linda swooned as she said the sentence. I imagine she would of changed her tact straight away, had she known that this blood spider was actually me. Adem merely smiled and then looked to me

"Kind of stealing your identity isn't he Navar Keelan?" I back peddled a little in my mind and tried my best not to make it seem as far off the possibility of it being me as I possibly could

"I dunno, not really I have like…tentacles and stuff…besides from what you can see, how Can you tell what he looks like anyway!" Adem just smiled and re-busied himself with his diary which he must have found in his journey from the pool. I slumped myself in the chair more, maybe I was in over my head too much, maybe I really wasn't set out for all this vigilante stuff, no matter how good it felt to be out there helping people, no matter that I was actually using my 'near limitless' power to good use for once. Maybe it really was time to re-think the whole thing. The first night I do it I almost get caught, on photo no less, and I left way too much evidence of my being there, and now everybody thinks spider-man is making a trip to Sydney to save everyone from this sudden increase in crime around Sydney, I sighed again, what was the point if everyone just thought it was spider-man anyway?" I had little more time to debate the ideas and tribulations of my decision because peter walked into the room carrying a bunch of papers, which I noticed said

"The future press" he walked in and put them onto the table in the middle of us all

"I thought you May all want to see this" he passed out a paper to all of us. I grabbed one, again the ink that instantly grabbed my attention shone on the page, beholding the words

"**ANOTHER GODSENT MISSING!"** my eyes were glued onto the headline I couldn't believe it, another godsent had been kidnapped. I read on:

_today reports of a Terence Winchester, a resident of manly Sydney and heir to the Winchester fortune is apparently missing, this is the latest in a spate of missing god-sent's all missing from the Sydney region, and with the odd increasing rate of crime within Sydney citizens are increasingly getting worried. A statement from house of m's investigation and research department ensures the public that they have sent there best on the case, and expect results to be returned to them anyway, and remind people that such actions such as this will not go unwarranted and unattended by the house of m, and will be dealt with, with the strictest punishment available to them. _

I stared at the paper again; my mind had made itself up again. I had to try again; I had the responsibility to stop these things from happening, not when I had the capacity to stop this mysterious disappearances should I stop helping them, from simple worry of exposure, this time. Tonight I just had to be extra careful.

CHAPTER 11

A voice in the dark

I wind swirled weakly around me. It was very musty out despite it still being late, it was still rather hot, I couldn't guess how hot, but it was still indeed rather stale, the wind swirled around me as I stared over to horizon beyond, the lights on the cityscape flickered on and off and flashed in all different colours and styles in a myriad of differences. I looked over myself as my costume shone in the light of the full moon. I was again wearing my 'blood spider' costume. However this time it seemed if it was a little bit darker. I wasn't sure if this was my body reacting to my subconscious need to not be seen again. Or if it was simply a shadow illusion, I shook it off as unimportant. I needed to focus, no more would any more godsents go missing on my watch, my whole point of this masked adventure was to stop this happening, I needed to start focusing on the bigger picture of this whole masquerade, there was a no point running around like a masked vigilante if I wasn't going to stop anything, sure I stopped a bank robbery, but that wasn't the point pointless petty theft as morbid as it sounded was simply a part of a life, and it was beyond me to stop it try as I might the entire effort on that level was futile, however something as individualistic and out of the ordinary as a spate of missing cases which all happened to be linked to godsents people with powers, or special abilities was something I think I had in my power to stop. Tonight I had to focus on more reconnaissance, other then getting involved, of course I wasn't sure how convicted I would be to stay out of the way if such a situation was presented to me. I clenched my fist as I stepped off the ledge facing the back yard. And I was yet again shocked, before me stood plant life almost what appeared to be grass land, it was tall grass that came to my chest there was even a savannah style tree somewhere near the pool. I ran my hands over the tall grass; I thought back to the other night when there was small field-like grass, whatever this odd phenomenon was it seemed to be evolving. I walked around a little more. And tried to sense around me for some sense of an explanation, I found nothing but the fluttering of heart beats in my immediate vicinity. I decided it was another mystery for another night, focus is what I needed. I ran off towards the bridge and nosedived off, flinging my way off the building and making my way the same way I did the night before

I looked over the city of Sydney as I surveyed it from the top of the bridge. The air flying past me providing some relief from the staunch heat around me, I stared down to the water many meters below me, I was almost tempted to dive in, its coolness would defiantly seem reliving, however I shook the idea out of my head. I was really high up. I wondered to myself, would I die from such a fall? Was it even possible for me to die? Every superhero has a weakness, I wondered to myself. Did I actually have a weakness? The way the professor explained my powers to me made it seem as if I was completely invincible. Nobody was completely invincible; I pulled my arms up to my face and clenched my clawed fingers. I ran through my head some possibilities, I really couldn't think of any apparent weakness, couldn't anything I be possibly weak against, just be absorbed by my body and then used against them anyway? I decided that it was something possibly worth discussing with the professor or maybe even Mr. Jackson, but now was not the time. I needed to focus; tonight I had to do something, tonight I had to actually save somebody. I stood up, the wind around me made my position more precarious. And then with a giant leap I left my place on the bridge. And I was now flying forwards towards a rather tall building. I sent out two snares from each of my wrists and wrenched myself forward as fast as I could, sending me into a blur of red and black as I shot forward to the building ahead. I landed with a rather large thump. And I nearly fell over; luckily tentacles sprouting from my back cushioned my fall. I straightened myself up and looked around, I was just glad there was no one around to see that, superhero's were supposed to be graceful and powerful, not awkward and falling on their ass all the time. I looked around I was onto of an average building, the cityscape beyond, flickered with life. I walked over to an oddly clean roof vent and leant on it. Steam was pooling around the roof and rising past me, I placed my hand over the steam, its cool moist texture began to soak into the fingers, and I let myself feel it in all its completeness. I was shocked when my red clawed hand began to fade away, fade into nothingness. Until I pulled my hand up to my face, my body had absorbed the steam itself. I literally had fingers of steam that I could clench and wave in the wind around me. It was beyond surreal to see my hand itself comprised entirely of steam. I clenched my fist and willed it to return to normal. My hand faded from its steam-form and slowly rebuilt itself into the clawed red hand of my 'blood spider' form. I needed to focus. I stretched out my senses to try and hear something, I sensed that to the right of me was more noise and hustle-bustle and to my left remained little of anything but quiet murmurs. I remembered the night before I had decided to go where there was less people, and less commotion. Perhaps I needed to go towards the noise, go towards the more populated area this time? But it brought up a bigger point, if I go towards the noise and people, how would I stay hidden? Somehow running around as steam seemed highly impractical to me. As if reacting to my questions my scar began to itch furiously, the worst it had ever itched. It was starting to pulsate violently. The pain was starting to rush to my whole body, soon after the odd pulsating feeling was began to turn to pain, but it was a furious type of pain, I fell to the ground, the pain was starting to become unbearable, it was getting hard to see, it was getting hard to see. The last thing I saw was my body as if was melting into the ground in a mess of vicious black goo. And the thoughts, all the evil thoughts that were flooding through my head.

I started becoming aware that I was indeed alive, I started feeling my fingers and my other extremities; I clenched my fingers (which only resulted in a tiny flick of my fingers). The realisation of my body began to flood through the rest of my body, ok so I had a body. Then light began to flood through my perceptions. I opened my eyes and they slowly adjusted, I was staring up into a galaxy of stars, ok so I finally I perceived I was alive. I got slowly, my legs still felt like they were jelly for a couple of seconds until my body finally straightened itself up. I could feel my body in its entirety and it felt different, I felt stronger and more focused. As if I was a more defined version of myself, I shook my head I was obviously thinking crazily, I pulled my hand up to my face and was shocked at what I saw, no longer was it red with its black overtones, what was before me was different, my hand was black and with even more crueller spiked fingers, I clenched it into a fist and it still felt normal. I was utterly confused; I looked around to the oddly clean roof duct and tried to spy myself in the reflection I was different. Where my suit was once red, was now black, and where was once black was now red. And my whole visage looked even crueller. I still looked like a rather vicious monster, I tried to think how this could happen, the last thing I remembered was my scar itching, I looked over to it and I was surprised to see that it was completely still; the infuriatingly annoying scar was always itching or just simply being annoying. Yet now, in this new form of mine the scar remained completely silent. If anything, this was a good start. But this was still just a simple costume. I imagined the new black theme would help me hide into the shadows a little, but it still wouldn't help me remain unseen. Then as if by answering my complaints, the red lines over my suit began to fade into black, and then as if by taking it further my body began to fade into something else as if I was a shadow. It was a rather odd appearance, as if I was only staring into the shadow of myself, a 2-d version of me, however it was still me, and I was still whole and in 3d. I smiled to myself this would be a perfect way to be able to sneak around the town. But the problem was where was I to go? I didn't want to stay here on this building any longer. I ran forward and with a giant leap I was shooting through the air. I looked back to the building I couldn't believe the strength of the leap I had just done, my whole body for once seemed to be working with me. And it was as if my instincts were beginning to take over, it was like I was in the passenger seat of my own body, taking second chair to my instincts. Never the less I was enjoying it. I landed onto the next building, this time gracefully. I smiled to myself again, as my body seemed to be revelling in my gratuitous praise for this new form. I was almost getting lost in my change, but I had to focus, tonight I needed to make a difference. I looked around the roof I was now on, it was a rather impoverished building. I opened my senses again, but this time it was different. It was as if I was seeing through a tunnel. The tunnel revealed a rather rowdy couple fighting over something, and then changed to a teenager playing a rather violent game, and then next to someone in another room who appeared to be practicing some sort of martial arts. And then my sense faded and I was back to myself. I recoiled in mind, somehow my sense had changed, it was as if it was now a focused look, almost as if my 'spider-sense' (named after the same and similar ability that spider-man possessed) and my super-sense had somehow combined. Now I had gone from seeing everything in flurry of useless images and sounds. To now my attention only showing me the things that proved an immediate danger to me, my body flowed with thoughts of pride as I smiled to myself yet again. This would be a good way to find problems within the city. I looked around me and snared myself the skyscraper adjacent to me. The snare was still curiously black, rather then the black and red mix it usually was. I swung almost down to ground level pulling myself back up quickly I saw my reflection on the side of the building it was rather like a shadow on the side of the building. With bright white eyes that ran up the side of my head in cruel and evil shapes. I swung another black line to a building next to me and pulled myself up to the top of the building. It was a much nicer building; there was some stone gargoyles that fringed the sides of the roof. I stretched out my sense again. The same tunnel vision showed a couple snuggling up a rather violent movie, then two kids fighting over some sort of toy, and lastly a rather large man playing a video game on a rather impressive looking computer system. The sense faded and again I was staring into the usual cityscape. I kicked the ground violently, the sudden spur of violence surprised me, but somehow it felt good as well. I was getting annoyed, sure scouring roof tops of Sydney was a good idea, and an effective one, but it was so tedious. I didn't have time to scour the whole of Sydney looking for some sort of incident to occur that was worth my notice. I looked around I needed a new plan; I needed a way to increase the scope of my scan. Perhaps if I got up higher I could increase the scope of the scan by being able to see more? I looked around for the highest building I could find. About two or so blocks away there was a rather tall, large and reflective building. I decided that was the best I could get at the moment. My body began to run, shooting several tentacles from out of my legs to catapult me into the air, I landed on another building with a light tap before flipping onto my hands and launching me into the air once again, two snares from my back guiding me onto my trajectory. I was completely surprised by my graceful acrobatics, this new form was making me more agile then I ever was before. I snared onto the side of the building and pulled myself forward with remarkable force. Arc around greatly throwing me into the left direction towards the large building, I was getting so much force thrown against my body I started wondering how fast I was going. But because I was going so fast I had little time to debate it. I slammed against the reflective glass surface with surprisingly little force because several tentacles cushioned my fall; I imagine it was an odd site, a black shadow like creature with tentacles spread over the side of the building. I took a deep breath and tried to concentrate. I left my focus on the things around me grow, larger and larger. It was as if there was a wave was washing over the city in all directions. And with each surge came more information, more insights to people's worlds and still nothing proved of any use. I pushed harder, as hard as I could. It was becoming a major strain on my mind, it was starting to effect my entire body, I was starting to lose grip of the building and I could feel my muscles un-tightening, slowly my vision was starting to fade, I had to let go of my growing sense or I was going to fall off the building, then just as I was starting to let go. Just at the edge of my sense. Was a suspicious scene, it was fuzzy due to the strain it was taking me to keep, However what I saw was good enough, there was a boy being confronted by three large uniformed men. This had to be it! All those supposed "missing cases" I just knew there had to be something more devious behind it! And I had finally discovered what it was. It seemed to be people kidnapping us godsent kind. But not this time, this time I get to save somebody. Tonight the odds change! I sucked the sense back and regained my self; it took a while to get used to everything again. But I really didn't have time to act. My body threw forward with a massive tentacle assisted thrust. I was flying forward with a massive velocity two tentacles whipped out from my torso, to propel me further more. I was starting to notice some of the buildings, I was even recalling some of the things I saw in some of the houses, I swung a snare out from my left wrist it connected to a red brick apartment block the g-force almost tearing my arm out of its socket, I rode the arc with as much strength as I possibly could, my body making me let go upon the arc of the swing making me fly through the air with more speed then I thought possible. I flew over two buildings, a tentacle flipped out to collide with a tree altering my trajectory. Until I saw a tree I remembered, I flipped over my body pushing out six tentacles from my back as I landed full throttle on the side of an exquisite white townhouse. I had managed to make it in time; there it was the dark limo, the three muscle-bound guys standing imposingly over the other boy. My body rushed with violent thoughts of impetuous destruction as my tentacles sprouted out towards the three muscle-bound men urging to eviscerate the men without any sense of a warning as did the red lines all over my body began to shine brightly. I pushed the thoughts away as repulsed as my body was. I stared down at the men. The middle one silently staring back up at me, it was at this point I noticed every single one of the emotion-less men, looked completely identical. I couldn't tell them apart. But what was even scarier was the eyes of the man staring back up at me. The large man with a strong jaw and perfect masculine features and blonde buzz cut to match. Stared at me with odd red eyes, red eyes that seemed to drill through me to my very core, my whole body was retching, and it was recoiling in feelings of repulsion, fear and an amazing form of anger. My body was getting hard to control, I was losing grip under the flood of emotions I was getting bombarded with. When suddenly the feelings began to fade as the three men without a word, noiselessly walked back to the car. I took a deep breath and tried to control my body's urges. I looked down to the kid and surveyed the object in front of me who wore neat brown hair that was pushed to his left side of his long sneering face. He was tall and wore some black slacks and an odd choice of shirt that gave him the impression that he was doing his best to appear casual, but it not coming together just as he would have hoped. His whole body seemed to reek with snobbery and distinction. He pointed up to me with his hands waving, wearing a cruel sneer

"What the hell do you think you're doing you wall crawling freak? Now there gone!" for someone's life I just saved he seemed to rather ungrateful, my body was sending millions of suggestions to my brain, all of them violent and bloody. I pushed them out of my brain; I wasn't going to resort to violence. No matter how ungrateful this kid was. I simply stared at him and said with a sure head

"Saving you kid?" the kid began to walk back to his door until he swang around and snarled at me

"Saving me, what gave you the impression I needed saving?" I recoiled in my brain, had I got this entire situation wrong, had I simply again taken a situation at base level and ignored everything else. I tried to ask the pompous kid what he meant without giving off that I was rather confused with the entire situation

"…wha- what do you mean?" I slapped myself internally, my conviction to not sound so confused didn't seem to reach my vocal chords. The pompous kid laughed derisively for a while until he put his hands on his hips and stared at me

"I wanted to go with them you idiot, and not just that you have annoyed Gunter Winchester! Now be gone…you vigilante freak!" I scowled at him; this pompous idiot was really starting to annoy me. My body began flooding with so many evil thoughts it was hard to ignore them. My back sprouted two tentacles with vicious spikes at the end stretching towards him, slowly savouring the privilege of being able to tear this idiot apart. He simply laughed at me mockingly. He pulled his arm up and fashioned his hand into a gun-like look. His body shimmered with a silver glow that ran up to his hand. And suddenly from where his hand was fashioned as the barrel of a gun, a pellet of metal shot out. He didn't even bother to see where it landed; he simply laughed and retreated into his house, still not looking back. Had he looked back he would have seen the bullet simply went straight through me as if shooting through water. My body was immersed in anger, anger that was so much not like me, as if a shadow of me had taken over my body, I urged my body to let my cool head prevail. My tentacles retreated and my anger began to fade, however it again seemed repulsed by my reaction. I needed to think, and get away from this place; there was too much anger here. I wished to myself that stupid idiot 'Gunter Winchester' knew that with a simple notion I could drain all the blood from his body, or stop his heart. I jumped up, throwing a tentacle against the idiots building to push me in the opposite direction landing me onto of a rather nice rooftop garden. I sat down in an adjacent park bench, fading myself into the darkness again. What did he mean he wanted to go? Perhaps I totally misjudged the situation, but I was so sure. I was so sure I had finally come across the kidnappers. And the kidnappers themselves, what was with the terrible feeling I had when they looked at me, as if I was repulsed and frightened to my very core. I was so annoyed at all these questions, and even more at my reaction to jump head forward again. I had done it again, failed another night. I slapped myself inside, as I looked up into the stars and tried to find that one star, that one star that shines for me when from nowhere came a voice, a voice in the dark

"I wouldn't let him get to you" I was so shocked my shadow form retreated and revealed the red lines over my suit again. I looked around I still couldn't see anything. Until in front of me revealed a figure, a female figure, I tried to talk to the female drenched in the darkness

"Uh…hello, who's there?" the darkness revealed a beautiful woman, she seemed about average height with black hair that fringed around her face with slight spikes, and then cascading around her back. Her beautiful blue eyes shone even in the dark highlighted behind the black mask around her eyes, and her lips smiled coyly lighting up her beautiful face, her body was clothed entirely tight black leather that clung to her amazing figure beautifully, across her body, she wore a sash that had an infinity symbol on them, and twisted around the sash with the infinity symbol was a rope with an odd claw like hook on it. One of her hands had a infinity tattooed on the back of it as well. She smiled as she walked out so I could see her, she gave me a few looks up and down, and I was quite surprised she didn't run on the spot, I imagine I was quite intimidating. She spoke again as she put her arms around her hips

"Eyes up solider boy, I'm up here" I think I blushed (as much as I imagine I could blush in this form) I tilted my head up an extra little bit to show that I very quickly complied. I went to apologise before she spoke again

"So…what are you? Alien, super villain…superhero…some sort of weird spider-man?" I coughed, I never really wondered what the outside perception of me would be, I never really imagined someone would think I was some sort of alien, but yet again I was tied to spider-man, it didn't matter how much I tried to differ from the character I could never really do it. I tried to think of what the best answer was; would it be better to simply say I was an alien? I decided it wasn't, something about me didn't want this girl to think I was other-worldly however I also didn't want to reveal my identity at this point. I decided to try and simply tell the truth

"No, I'm all human…just um err special…and no, for god sakes no I am not some sort of spider-man rip-off!" the girl giggled a little until she looked at me a little more

"Yeah a godsent are you? I got to say I had my suspicions, anyway I'm the same, names Infiniti, not infini-ty infin-TI, and whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?" I coughed again as I stood up to grab her hand, the whole situation I was in seemed so beyond strange I couldn't even begin to comprehend it. I shook her hand as I stared into her eyes. She didn't seem the least bit intimidated by me, I couldn't comprehend it.

"I'm…err...Blood" I figured giving out my code-name was probably the best Idea, Infiniti took my black clawed hand and shook it with no amount of flinching. She turned around and stared at a building.

"nice to meet you 'Blood" I will see you round tiger, and don't forget to watch your back" she used the rope that was around her sash to link herself to an adjacent billboard and swing herself away from my presence as she faded back into the darkness, I got up to look where she was, and she was seemingly nowhere. I couldn't begin to figure out this night, it was far to confusing. I simply swung my way back home, trying to make some sort of sense of this, yet-again failure of a night.

Indecency

CHAPTER 12

Growing pains

Sleep. Oh how I'd cherished sleep these last few days, well as much sleep as I could get these days; I truly don't think I really slept these days anyway, a part of me was always aware, that part in the back of my head that warned me of danger, it was hard to explain. Again as it was always something was destined to ruin my slumber, be it kovu, the sun, or maybe be something outside or even Nikki, if it was anything I hoped it would be Nikki. Things had been a little strange with Nikki since I visited her parents. Not bad, just strange. Being that I was totally new to relationships I really didn't know what to do about it, all I knew was that since I decided to go and be a vigilante. Perhaps being her boyfriend meant that I had to organise stuff to with her by myself? I really didn't know. However as my mind was now awake I decided it was probably worth getting up. I opened my eyes it was a bit brighter then usual, I rolled over to look at the time it was 12:00! That was really late for me, I couldn't believe it was that late, I guessed all my 'extra curricular' activities were probably taking a toll on my body, but then how does my body tire anyway? If it can just draw energy from external sources how then did it exactly tire? I hated the complete unknown I had for my body, I truly must be the biggest marvel of science to date, and I truly had no Idea how to grasp anything about me other than to put one foot in front of another. Which was as about as infuriating as that stupid Gunter Winchester, why was it that anger was always my first emotion these days? Had I truly become such a monster that I immediately went for anger as my first emotion. I used to be so irrational, always over-analysing everything I could, searching the angle and options of everything I could find however this was as much a safety mechanism as it was a habit. And now everything always came to anger. I tried to think to myself at make it my personal vendetta to try and not resort to anger all time, as much as my body seemed repulsed by my decision.

I got up and threw on some clothes, I didn't care which ones. I made my way down the hallway; the day was half over now anyway I might as well get it over with. When I heard voices, voices only probably I could hear but voices nevertheless, I decided to listen, how many times does one get to truly be a fly on the wall? The conversation seemed to be between Linda and Nikki

"Oh I don't know Linda what do you think?" asked Nikki, I listened further.

"Well I don't know, I guess, actually you know what he really has been acting different hasn't he?" I was now to the point where I was wondering if they were talking about me

"Do you think its got anything to do with me Linda? Or maybe meeting my parents?" Linda made a little 'tut' noise before she spoke again

"Nikki that's just not possible, everybody knows Navar adores the ground you walk on!" well it cemented the fact that they were talking about me. I considered perhaps phasing through the wall to get a better look at the situation but the entire thought of having to go through that again just seemed to traumatic. I opted on listening a little more

"Yeah your probably right, I dunno it seems like he's just distracted all the time you know?" I couldn't hear anything for a while, the silence was like a dagger through the suspense, and the dagger was digging into me. What was worse was this doubt Nikki had about our relationship, I loved Nikki, as much as I could think I could love someone, I loved the way she smelled, the way she smiled and laughed. I love the way she felt against my skin, life without her seemed so dark it was hard to bare. All I wanted to do was run into the room and hug her, but I knew I was overacting, I needed to do something and I would invite her to do something with me, but for now I guess I just had to play like I hadn't heard the conversation at all. I walked into the room and the girls immediately tried to act like they were talking about nothing important, I was so on the verge of laughing at the awkwardness of the situation that I distracted myself by grabbing an apple with a tentacle from the back of my hand and chucking it into my mouth. I sat next to Nikki and leant into her a little, she seemed pleased enough and I spied Linda making a 'told you so' remark. I broke the silence when I felt the need to

"Hey girls where's everybody else?" Nikki simply swung another arm around me as Linda decided to answer the question

"Well considering someone decided to wake up when half the day is already over… (I rolled my eyes at her) Leigh and Mr Jackson are on the roof looking through that book you bought them and trying things out; um Shane…or rothkin now isn't it? He's out doing whatever it is that takes all that screaming and grunting, Kyle's somewhere near Shane I think, he as well seems better today, I even got a smile! Um Carissa is off on some more investigation stuff, and of course your mum is off on some other charity event" I looked at Linda a little strangely, I wasn't expecting a life report, a simple 'outside mostly' would of sufficed for me. How was it that Linda always seemed to know what everyone was doing every time? Maybe it had something to do with her powers? Nevertheless I smiled at Linda weirdly and simply answered

"Ah…right, sure um I'm going to go outside…" I kissed Nikki on the cheek and left the girls to talk about the developments that had just transpired, ah girls and their gossip.

Outside was a little of the same fair least I was so shocked when I walked out to hear Leigh's voice with no visible body that my body sprouted four black tentacles from my back, each one with the same vicious lust to eviscerate something. I turned around, my sense immediately homing on the source. It was Leigh on the side of the house, his hands had big sucker parts on his fingers, along with a large crocodile like tail, and he looked so odd I almost laughed

"I can see why you do this nav, its hell fun" Leigh joked as he scurried along the side of the wall and back up to the roof, I went to reply but there was no point he had already gone back up the top of the building. I turned around as I heard a loud scream, it was Shane, or rothkin to be precise, yet again pushing himself to the upper most limit of his strength, this whole course of action Shane was taking was beyond wrong, every day he was going outside, powering up as much as he could (until he almost fainted) giving himself a couple of seconds to recover and then repeating the process. I was almost certain it was killing him, but it was such a touchy subject. How do you tell someone it doesn't matter what power level they have, when they had such pride in there powers it was almost egotistical? Kyle on the other hand was someway away from Shane (in the same grass battlefield) practicing with his staff, which was now laced with glass-like shards protruding from different spots over the intricately carved staff. He was going so fast it was hard to keep up with him. I decided to approach the group with some amount of caution, seemed to be like the day to practice ones powers, I didn't really know how to practice with my powers, but I imagined it was probably worth finding out. I walked into the low hedged surrounding grass battlefield, and began immersed in a sense of cold. Everything around me seemed lifeless as if it was drained of all the heat, I shook it off, cold didn't mean much to me anyway, Kyle stopped his relentless pace enough to do a handstand off his stick using his tail for balance, he smiled at me weakly

"Hey nav…" I was so shocked I almost fell over, Kyle actually talked to me, it wasn't much but considering the way Kyle had been acting lately, it was a hell of a lot of something. I smiled but I was distracted by my body warning me of something, my instincts acted before I did and shot out a black tentacle to catch Shane before he collided with the ground. I pulled him closer to me and let him lay on the ground; his heart was beating so rapidly I was afraid it was going to explode. Kyle had run over soon after me, and grew a bed out of grass in order for Shane to sleep on. He truly had pushed himself a little to far this time; Kyle just looked at me a little worriedly. But Shane came too rather quickly. He pushed us aside and went to try again until I stepped in.

"….Rothkin, maybe you should give it a rest? Come in and have lunch then get back to it? Your killing yourself dude" Shane wiped his head of sweat and coughed a little

"Yeah, yeah…ok your probably right" he got up slowly and walked himself into the house, Kyle followed Shane noiselessly and I was left to follow in their wake, still utterly confused how someone could push themselves so far.

Lunch was interrupted halfway by the arrival of Carissa; she walked into the room in a woman's suit, as usual typing stuff into her large wristband of hers. However more surprisingly was the two men that preceded her, they were both quite formatively dressed in black suits, and one had blue eyes and a neat black hair cut. The other had green eyes with most of his hair pushed back into a pony tail, both of them wearing a emblem on their suit pocket that was a m that spiked almost like a devilish m. They both smiled as they lapped around her wake, each of them firmly planting there attentions on all of us. Carissa broke the silence speaking for everyone

"Hi everyone, I hope you don't mind, but Larry and Brian here were just wondering if it was possible if they could watch an exhibition match by all of you, its just there's so many rumours flying around the office and indeed the department itself that they would just like to see the whole thing for themselves." Everyone looked a bit taken aback I wasn't sure if it was the odd spontaneity of the question, or just the way Carissa delivered it giving us no real option to say no anyway. My body was already burning for combat; the whole idea of battling seemed to have my blood boiling with pride and anticipation. I don't think my exact emotion was the same as everyone else's around the table but it seemed to be a general air of acceptance, I wasn't sure how it was going to go down, but my body didn't seemed to mind, it wanted to get started already, as if eating and talking was just a distraction, a pointless endeavour and wasting good time that could be spent on slicing, whipping and eviscerating everything in site. I pushed the oddly violent urges out of my mind and focused on finishing my lunch. Linda seemed to already beginning to flare up with questions but Carissa stopped her before she could get started

"You needn't worry about space, Larry here has a power to alter dimensions so you will all have room, anyway we will all meet you outside we have some things to go over, when your ready, thanks!" I was still a little bit confused. I noticed Shane still watching her walk out. Kyle was messing around with his food, altering the growth of some of his salad, and Leigh was trying to tell Linda about some of the things he found in the book, but Linda's mind seemed to be rolling along in another tangent. And Nikki was sending a text with her phone. I was worried about the impact of this battle idea, everyone was a little on edge at the moment, Kyle had only just started talking to people, and Shane I was quite sure was going through a nervous breakdown. The others seemed pretty much fine but the whole idea to me just seemed a little unusual and off beat. I would of said something if my body was aching so desperately for its chance to cause destruction it was a little to unbearable not to get swept up in a little.

As we stepped outside Carissa and the two men immediately stopped talking, I noticed Mr Jackson had taken a seat to observe and was discussing something with my mother, great now my mother was here too, that was going to put on some more pressure. My body seemed to be revelling in the pressure but my mind was rolling through its usual doubts, how was it possible to have two different thoughts in the same body? Linda was smiling and really seemed to be ready to do something, Kyle had a sullen look about him but couldn't hid some of his anticipation, Shane had his face clenched with seriousness, and Adem and Leigh were both discussing something, and nikki was stretching near the edge of the battle. I gulped in some air and clenched my fists, oh well I said to myself, here it goes. We were about to step on the field when Carissa ran up to us

"Good, good glad you guys came, ok so when you step in its going to look like your old battle stadium back at the institute, don't worry about it has to do with a combination of Larry and Brian's powers. Oh and don't worry about injuries and all that, you got the same protection you did back at the institute, so everyone put on a good show for our viewers!" she stared at all of us, and then even more at me until she ran back onto the seating area and waved us in. I followed the group and we all stepped foot on the grassy battle grounds, it was completely surreal. Just one step and we were transported to a completely different surrounding, it looked exactly like the battle stadium at the institute minus the faction flags and the people, and all we had was about five onlookers and the rest of us battling. We all stood around in a circle (it just seemed like the right thing to do) and all began our transformations, Linda engulfed herself in a weird purple glow, her eyes full with flowing purple light, and even more surprisingly was a katana-like sword that had sprouted from her hands from nothingness. She noticed everyone looking at her and began to explain herself

"Well…it's a sword, well kind of. Think of it as a psychic sword, its not really here, but I've altered the perceptions of everyone to think there's a sword, so if you get cut for instance, your brains going to think its been cut" I was completely astounded, it was absolutely amazing the hidden details of Linda's powers. But I was distracted by Leigh's transformation; It was his usual form he transformed into, but now it had a rather sturdy looking tail attached to it. Next to them was Adem who was again transformed into his massive behemoth blood suit form, however this time again in its thin layer of blue flame that plumed and rose at different spots of his body. Adem's transformation getting a rather exuberant response from onlookers, Shane erupted violently in flame, the flame from his hair trailing up almost a meter high in a blue tower of flame. Nikki smiled and grew all six of her wings, and began to feather the air silently. Her presence lifting me above my usual levels as per usual, which left only Kyle and I, who were the only two who didn't really have any sort of dramatic transformations in mind. Kyle simply gripped his stick back as it spiked out on the ends and whipped around some barbed vines. I shrugged and grew four tentacles from my back and turned my hands into my black clawed version, by now it was just to hard to control my bodies impulses, I took second seat to my instincts again. And just like that the battle started. Nikki flew out to the top of the battle with an amazing amount of speed it was almost astounding. Shane had already engaged Leigh in battle, but Leigh seemed be rather unfazed by the heat, but the room was again getting dramatically colder all of a sudden. As Linda had already floated up and began a air battle with Nikki (Nikki using her bladed wings as a sort of sword) I was left with Kyle, I really didn't want to be left with Kyle. But I had little time. My body jumped backwards using tentacles to propel me high in the air. Helping me avoid a sweep of Kyle's stick instantaneously, I loved how my instincts worked ever since my transformation into the blacker version of me. I decided I might as well enjoy my battle, and let my impulses engulf me. I jumped to the ground and moulded my hands into two axes. Kyle rushed at me with the intention to clothesline me with his pole. It met my axes but the force of his speed was a little too much, he threw me a couple of meters untill I met a wall of grass that washed over me forcing me into a bind of grass-like vines. It was amazing how much more powerful Kyle was on natural ground, it was also a little hard to remember we were still on grass when everything still looked like a gym. My body roared with anger and excitement, I sprouted many bladed tentacles all ripping into the bind like it was I an animal with a piece of meat. I was free within seconds. My body ripped itself up. Every part of me roaring in excitement, I looked over myself I almost looked a little feral. My back had sprouted at least four tentacles on each side of it, all slicing the air like vicious, hungry snakes. My forearms had also sprouted some tentacles as well. Kyle rushed at me, but this time I was ready. My tentacle rushed at him, wrapping around him with such speed even I was shocked. The tentacle then turned into blue flame, Kyle was now being wrapped up by a tentacle of blue flame, I could feel the flesh around him burning, but the anger in his eyes belayed no sense of pain. I wall of grass erupted from underneath me, enveloping me with its pits of massive amounts of bladed vines, all stabbing around me and through me. My body fought back with a helicopter of blades. Shearing the grass down like a whipper-snipper. Kyle skin was badly burnt in places; he couldn't hold his stick in one of his hands. I was however still too slow to react, my body had warned me but I was still in shock that Kyle could still move. With shocking amount of speed Kyle Ran up to me and gripped his stick like a baseball bat and whacked me as hard as he could, a massive tentacle assault following the barrage, I was left flying across the ground and landing somewhere near Adem. Who apparently had been battling Shane and Leigh. Shane was using his flame coating against him, and Leigh was using vicious claws to dig into the side of the beast that was still whipping them with flaming tentacles that would kill any normal human. Adem left out a roar using his muscular arm to sweep both Leigh and Shane down, and turned his attention to me, just as a blur jumped over Adem and poled both Shane and Leigh into a wall of grass. Adem whipped out a tentacle landing near me, now this was something I was used to. However Adem seemed to have a lot more control of his suit this time around, he was manoeuvring his body around instead of the usual thundering primal lunges. However my instincts seemed to be on top of him even before the battle had started. Several tentacles lunged towards Adem, and brutally eviscerated wholes through his torso, the other ripped one his hands off, while the other was setting to work around his neck, it was only by force of will that I managed to stop the carnage. Adem was immediately engulfed in a orange sphere and was still looking at me shocked. I couldn't believe the violence I had just done, it was so not like me, yet I had just done it. I looked at my hands that were now back to their black clawed form. I was still shocked when suddenly it began to rain with sharp things. Some went straight through me, the others cutting parts of me, as per usual it was about as useful as throwing rocks through water. However I looked up to observe the culprit, it was nikki, she smiled at me and continued the barrage, I wondered where Linda was and when I looked over she was engaged in an intense four person battle, it was rather interesting to watch people react to a sword that wasn't really cutting them, Kyle running around and using the fact he was on grass to his advantage completely, Shane berating people with overwhelming amounts of blue flame, making sure no grass even made it close to him, simply burning upon impact of the flame, and again his blue flames seemed do be getting darker, I wondered to myself if had anything to do with the fact that it was increasingly getting colder. Leigh had changed one of his hands to a crocodile mouth and had snakes sprouting from the other, it looked completely odd, but it was doing a great amount of damage. And Linda was pushing people off the their balance, throwing back peoples attacks, and cutting people with her sword when possible. It looked like a battle that would never end, and even more so my body ached to finish it. I pushed the evil urges away, after looking at how they finished Adem I was almost repulsed by them. I looked back up to Nikki who still barraging me with bladed feathers. I shot my fingers up to her, each of them becoming their own snare. They latched onto her wings, and I yanked suddenly pulling her to earth I used the force to propel me in the air as I flipped and forced some tentacles to keep her to the ground, making my blood snares mixing with the surroundings seemed pointless because all that was really around was grass, as a matter of fact I was really out of my element here, I had no where to sling from, and no areas to manoeuvre. Nikki sliced the tentacles with her bottom tiniest wings and used the rest to help her to stand up. I was amazed how she had the ability to twist her wings to a more horizontal position, as to make them like big back sprouting knives. She rushed at me with her wings, cutting through me with all three! Naturally it did nothing I just stood there and used a tentacle to push her over.

"Oh come on this isn't fair!" I shrugged my shoulders as I rubbed the back of my hair sheepishly. She got up and pouted but was distracted by a Kyle that was being thrown by what looked like huge fireball and a odd purple energy, I was really impressed with Shane, in such a short time he really did seem more powerful. Kyle landed in the middle of the room. And growled placing his staff on his back, tentacles whipping around his torso to keep it stay there (which I thought was rather cool) Kyle roared in anger and suddenly the glass shards on his back began to glow, just slightly it made my chest feel warm as well, however suddenly from the floor, grass began to sprout and spin around, and then again but this time more and even faster, and then even more, it was if a grass cyclone was beginning, a couple of people were already caught in it, I looked down to notice from my knees down was now in fire, burning any grass snares trying to grab a hold of it, which I thought was rather intelligent, when suddenly a loud

"Enough!" bellow through the field and suddenly everything stopped Leigh and Linda (who had been caught in the grass hurricane) ended up somewhere on the other side of the grass field. Nikki flew down next to me as she retracted her wings. Shane erupted in more bluey-black flame in the sky giving off an odd aura of heat and coldness, until he seemed to tire himself out enough to come back down. Adem seemed to be fully recovered but was looking at me rather shocked, as I was still doing the same. And I could notice a couple of people giving me the same stare, which I observed every bit of. The voice belonged to Jackson Holmes as he trudged onto the grass in khaki shorts and a bright blue polo shirt that suited him about as much as a penguin suited a desert. He stole an evil look to Carissa and got us all to stand in a semi circle he bent down to our level a bit and began to debrief us on how we went (as he usually did) I smiled a little bit, I had almost missed these.

"Well that was…good….defiantly different, but that's ok raven faction people really shouldn't fight each other anyway, always ends up as a messy power struggle, but by George have you boys gotten stronger…and girls of course. First Adem. That was well a damn shocker of an exit, but you got damn good control of that form, and the flame was a brilliant touch. Id say you should concentrate on two things, some more powers that compliment your large form, or either try and get some completely different powers so you don't have to rely on that form all the time….now Leigh bloody brilliant boy! An alligator head for a hand, I got to say it looked a whole bloody lot of weird, but did the job didn't it, anyway Ile discuss it more with you in a private lesson. Now Linda my girl, the sword was a brilliant idea wasn't it? Looked bloody funny people reacting to thinking they've been cut. (Linda smiled) perhaps if you can do a sword, perhaps you could increase your psychic arsenal to say make people think they have been shot by a psychic gun or sorts, anyway just an idea, you have surprised me with your talent, I haven't seen such an apt psychic like you for a long time girl, and I know from experience it takes a hell of a lot of mental capacity to get that stuff working. Shane my dear boy you were looking like you were killing yourself out there (Shane muffled something about calling him rothkin) but sweet Zeus have you gotten some more power under your belt, your flames seem to be metamorphosing some how too, id like to investigate that a little more, only information I have for you boy is well calm down a little and stop trying to kill yourself out there, battles are for fun not for life or death…..and lastly you two. Navar your well as good as usual, you seemed to have a…different handle on your powers then when I last saw you, but as per usual your unflappable as ever and always seem to be able to turn anything to your advantage an omega indeed hey boy? And sweet Jesus Kyle, makes a hell of a difference being on natural turf doesn't it, by my god you gotten a hell of a control over nature these days don't you, if any information I can give you is try to diversify, learn to blend your powers a little more and use them in some even more weird ways, not that you haven't already by any means. Anyway that's all I have to say, I now have to go and give my daughter a stern lecture for not stopping the battle earlier I will see you all at dinner" everyone seemed to be glowing after the comments of the battle, Kyle of course had come out the best, id say he probably was the best if he was on natural ground, it was always the same advice that Mr Jackson had for me, it was always along the lines of do what your doing, or keep trying along those lines, I guess my powers were probably beyond him, they were sure as hell beyond me. I think the only person who really got it was the professor. I looked over to the two men who simply sat silently staring at me, someone was about to talk to me but I walked off, I was still so completely shocked about my spontaneous act of violence that I didn't feel like answering questions about something I couldn't really control. I spent most of the day reading the future press, which had a massive article on the amazing amount crime rate increases in the coastal south eastern region of Australia and what the House of M was going to do about it. Which by the looks of it seemed to be very little of nothing, however I was looking forward to tonight I had some steam to work off. And some nameless thugs seemed like a brilliant punching bag. The last thing I saw before going up to my room was Shane muttering something about swords or something.

CHAPTER 13

Demons

The night had turned miserable, from nowhere clouds amassed over the skies, and rain began to pour down relentlessly. I could hear thunder and lightning in the distance it was giving quite a distracting and depressing view on the world, I was thinking about perhaps deciding to not go out tonight, so I didn't revert into my costume I walked outside onto the roof in my normal clothes, rain cascading all around me. The odd phenomenon that seemed to only occur at night had returned, that being the odd grass and trees and just general fauna that seemed to grow only at night, I stepped onto the grass and again got that odd feeling that it was repulsed by my presence. The wind around me was picking up dramatically sending waves of force against the grass. Then in the middle of the field was Kyle, he hadn't even seemed to know I was there. Kyle was kneeling in the grass. With his staff stabbed into the ground he appeared to be concentrating very hard, I walked a little further towards him he still hadn't noticed me, the only thing that changed was the wind, it was getting dramatically stronger as thunder was toiling around in the air and seemed to be getting closer and with more intensity. I stepped towards Kyle some more as cautiously as I could. He still hadn't noticed my presence when suddenly he looked up with a sense of worry and urgency in his eyes. He put his hands up and tried to scream over the most recent bout of thunder, I couldn't hear what he said, but suddenly I had little time to think about anything, the air went dry, my hair started to rise on its end, and suddenly light flashed furiously, so furiously I lost my sight, and seconds later thunder billowed so loudly it threw me onto my back. My body felt strange as if it was drained of everything, I felt like I was losing my grip on reality and even my hold on a solid form, it couldn't hold on anymore everything felt static.

"Nav? Oi nav you alive dude?" it was a voice, my body ebbed with pain, for the first time in a while actual pain, not the idea of pain, or the sense where there should be pain, but actual pain. I opened my eyes it was Kyle he had his arms around my shoulders and was shaking me, I groaned to him that I was alive, I was still shocked that I was feeling pain. I got up and looked At my hands, they were bleeding but not my usual bleeding there were cuts all over the forearms, and even more cuts up my arms, I felt my face and the same was there as well, I completely had no idea what was going on, wasn't I supposed to heal every possible wound anyway? I groaned again as I got to my feet, my legs felt different as if they were, I dunno its hard to describe, but they felt more realistic than usual. I cracked my neck, and noticed that blood was seeping through the pant legs; I looked up to Kyle and cocked my head sideways

"What the hell is going on?" Kyle stabbed his stick into the ground which was curiously now glowing purple through the transparent glass like shards that stuck out on the stick. He looked me up and down and then asked worriedly

"Are you ok nav?" I looked down to my hands they were now almost covered in the blood; I looked up to Kyle and simply said to him

"I, I don't know…" my first instinct was to call for my mum, but I knew that was most probably would accomplish nothing. I shook my hands a little more as some blood splattered off, I was trying to see if I could shock my body into working again. Kyle looked over to me and seemed as about as worried as I was

"Nav, shouldn't you have healed by now?" I nodded with a rather sad look, I was probably in danger of bleeding to death, to before now probably seemed like a joke. I was suddenly feeling a little woozy again. A slight tingly feeling was running through my extremities, and suddenly my body began to feel good again, my wounds and cuts instantly healed, and all my more extrasensory senses rushed back into my mind. I smiled at Kyle and rubbed the back of my head, I was just glad to have my cuts healed

"Well that was…weird" Kyle grabbed my hand and pulled it closer to him, observing it up and down.

"You feeling better nav?" I nodded and rolled my shoulders and yawned, for almost a split second my black scar began to itch and then it stopped as quickly as it started, my body now flooding with feelings of repulsion for not being able to heal for that scary couple of minutes. I looked up into the air that was still wildly overcast and rain while it had slowed down was still pouring. I looked at Kyle and cocked my head a little slightly

"What the hell just happened?" Kyle lifted his hand as thunder cracked in the distance

"Lightning mate" I cocked my head a little more

"What do you mean?" Kyle smiled and cracked his knuckles and smiled at me, again he was actually smiling

"I can, well I can kind of sense it, I can feel it you know…and well I guess I can kind of alter its course as well." I looked up at Kyle, and then to his purple-glowing stick, he never seemed to amaze me, out of all of us, Kyle seemed to have the oddest combination of powers, for instance all of Shane's powers were suited around fire and fire mastery, Kyle started off with simply the power of speed, but through gene influencing has managed to gain mastery over nature. And now it seemed he could sense weather patterns, I suppose lightning was a form of nature is it not?

"Um ok so you can sense lightning, so that's what happened lightning struck?" Kyle nodded as a flash of lightning flashed somewhere in the distance

"Well yeah, I kind of manipulated it, I wanted to see how much mastery I had of it, and well I kind of underestimated myself, it struck like well right here, and somehow…amazingly my staff acted as lightning conductor, however some of the lightning seemed to arc off into you, and you fainted." Well I guess that explained the glowing staff, perhaps it was now storing energy within it? And it kind of explained my mysterious fainting, still didn't explain the temporary absence of my powers though.

"But all those weird cuts, I was like fully bleeding out or something its like my powers weren't working" Kyle nodded a little then looked up into the sky with that look he usually had when he was working out a complicated math problem I couldn't even wrap my head around

"My hypothesis is, and this is just a guess, that somehow maybe such a high dosage of power in such a quick succession, probably sent your body into a kind of shock and paralysis, upon your powers not working it kind of like started to remember all the cuts and wounds your body has healed over time." I looked at my hands a little worriedly, it was as if, my body being paralysed it kind of began to remember everything bad that's ever happened to it, it was a horrible feeling, a horrible feeling I never wanted to go through again. Kyle spoke again as he pulled his stick out the ground but still curiously dragging it along the ground like it was heavy.

"I think we may have found you a weakness nav, Ill discuss it with Mr Jackson tomorrow, anyway why are you out here anyway?" I still wasn't ready to tell anybody that I was sneaking out at night, and even more so I didn't want to tell Kyle, he'd only just started talking to me anyway,

"Um well…I was looking for you…" it was a lie. But I figured it was a good enough lie. Kyle smiled and picked up his stick and looked upon it wondrously, he just smiled and headed back inside, and I let him know I was going to stay out here for a bit more. And he smiled and went back inside, I wanted to wait until it I felt it was safe, I sat there perched on the edge of the building go over everything I could think of from the brutal attack on Adem, to my getting shocked with lightning

The weather was still horrible. I sat on the top of the bridge again trying to decide where I was going to go tonight. So far I had gone left, which ended badly, and I had gone right…which had ended badly as well. I only really had two options, go forward or go back home, right now with this weather the latter was becoming more preferable, however my body wouldn't let me have any thoughts of going back, not when it could have the chance of causing some more destruction. And besides the rain was becoming a little thinner and starting to subside a little. I had really no choice, I jumped off the bridge and two snares shot out from my shoulder blades propelling me further. I landed on the side of the building, my senses indicated nothing out of the ordinary so I moved on, swinging my way through a street full of rather large buildings. As per usual nothing out of the ordinary coming to my attention, I swung myself above a rather mediocre building, it wasn't poor but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, it was made out of brick and had little interesting about it, there was however a rather attractive girl getting dressed to loud music. I wiped my head ( of what I wasn't exactly sure) and began to continue on, the buildings were beginning to become a little more spaced apart and making room for a more residential area. I guess this was why I didn't come this way before now, it only really led to houses and the suburbs were there was most likely some slight thefts and maybe some domestics but that's not what I'm here for, I'm here to work out the reason for all these supposed kidnappings of us godsent. Which after Gunter Winchester's comments were becoming an even bigger mystery, I remember him say he wanted to go with the three muscle bound identical triplets. Why would he want to go with them? And even more importantly if all these godsent's were being taken, where were they being taken too. I felt annoyed, I had been doing this a while now and the only thing I had really managed to ascertain was a new outfit, and a grand annoyance for my inability to solve mysteries. Some omega mutant I was. I shook it off, answers weren't going to come to me. I decided to try and avoid the suburbs and swung deeper into the city, when my sense flared up just around the corner a bunch of thugs were attacking a woman, I had little time to act as my body was already dragging me towards the altercation, I landed with a thump behind them, for some reason the whole 'getting caught' thing seemed to not bother me right now. I decided I might as well play with them a little bit

"Burgling a lady? Come on guys, I think there's a bank a couple of streets back, why not try something worth my while?" there was five of them, all looked the same shape and all of them wore balaclavas, and even had the same motions and feel about them, this was really strange. One of them turned around, it was that same guy, the same one with the red eyes that gave me a sickening feeling inside the pit of my stomach, I couldn't control my rage it was completely unstoppable tentacles lunged at the man stabbing him through the shoulders and throwing him behind me violently, the lady with the bag simply ran off in horror. I knew I would of done the same. Another tentacle ripped through the arm of another man who had those same eyes, It was something about their eyes. And while I was doing this the other three men remained completely stationary just staring at me. Staring at me with there creepy red eyes, as if they were compelled to stare upon me with wonderment by some unknown force. My body was only getting angrier every second I had to suppress it. I concentrated with all my will power and my body slowly began to obey, my tentacles were still biting the air with the ferocity of a rabid dog, but I had my body under control. I turned around to look at the first man I had thrown. His shoulder wound was healing, healing almost like mine did. I cocked my head, I was going to say something smart but all my effort was being used controlling my body from ripping every part of the man I was staring at apart, as a matter of fact everyone of the anonymous men gave me the same creepy feeling inside my stomach. My claws in my hands were growing shaper and crueller as were my tentacles, it was as if my body was turning feral with rage and my sense was the only thing keeping it sane. I didn't care about the robbers I needed to get out of here before I killed everyone of these freaks, I jumped up and snared against a tree throwing me onto a roof, unto which I leaped past a further two buildings before I decided to catch my breath. What was it about those red eyes, and how come they all had them? And even more troublesome was what going on with my body, had I really become so utterly violent, how could I be such a violent person when I was still disgusted by my actions? Perhaps that's the true spirit of a good murderer, one that doesn't think he truly is, but just keeps making the same mistake. It was a terrible thing to feel scared of yourself, I suppose human beings should be scared of themselves anyway, humans have within them great capacity for love and growth, but within everyone is darkness, and such darkness has started wars, killed children and slaughtered innocents for as long as time began. Was that all this was, was this my darkness? Was this the horrible side of me? Or was this my true self, and was I only masquerading as a human in a vain effort in life. It made me think back to when I was deciding for a costume and my body first reverted back to that savage form with the illuminated chest and the large tooth filled mouth that looked like a monster from children's nightmares, was I simply fighting my true self this whole time? No, no I couldn't be, I have a soul, and I have feelings, if this was truly my darkness I would fight it when I needed to, every warrior of virtue must first face his demons to become truly pure, that was all this was. Facing my demons. But I had little more time to debate it because a voice broke my concentration

"Well that was an impressive display!" it was her voice again, how the hell didn't I sense her again

"Huh, where?" I heard a little laugh and then a tap over the back of my shoulder

"I thought I told you to watch your back alien boy" I coughed a little until the girl flipped over from my back and gracefully landed in front of me, wish I could do that without assistance. She smiled and pointed to where I had fled

"I didn't know running away was in the hero codebook?" I coughed a little and stood up, I seriously had no idea where to put this girl, was she stalking me? Or was she also some sort of masked vigilante, and then there was the odd feeling that she seemed familiar, I tried to digress a little

"To be honest its not, but I just had to get out of there, something about those guys, it just does something to me…" she pushed some of her bangs out of her face and nodded.

"Yeah I know what you mean, like this weird feeling, I dunno what you felt but, but I dunno there's just something fishy about those red eye guys, I've been trying to follow them" I looked at her in the eyes, I was still as confused about this girl as I was in the first place. I was pretty sure her weird feeling and my weird feeling about them was completely different. At least I got a little piece of information she was following this one group of people, which seemed to indicate she was someone like me, just trying to quell some of the massive rise in crime in Sydney

"What do you mean fishy?" she started pacing a little

"I don't know, well you know about all this crime right? Of course you do, why else would you be out here anyway…well I dunno I just reckon it's somehow all linked to those thugs" I looked at her a little curiously

"How could all the crime in Sydney be linked to those freaky guys? And another thing how the hell do you keep sneaking up on me I should be sensing that, and another thing who the hell are you anyway" I decided I might as well ask all the questions that were bugging me anyway, I had nothing to lose anyway. The girl, who was still becoming increasingly attractive to me just smiled and offered me her hand, I took it with mine and shook it, it was odd sight my black clawed hand shaking her beautiful hand. She smiled at me and began to talk

"I might as well come clean, well firstly my names katlin, katlin fox and the reason I can sneak up on you is something to do with my powers, and I can absorb and convert mutant energies. Into energy mostly, hence the name Infiniti, and as far as the guys I really don't know but they have to be linked to something bigger I just know, are you like…stuck like that?" katlin fox, katlin fox was the name of the mysterious girl in front of me. Her powers seemed rather interesting. I also decided that showing her my face couldn't really hurt, I mean she had just told me for her name anyway, so I knew her identity. I stood up and returned to my normal form, naturally wearing clothes as well. I smiled and began to explain

"I am Navar Keelan, nice to meet you katlin. My powers are well; I guess you've seen them. And obviously no, I just use that costume to you know hide my identity and stuff" katlin smiled at me and then looked a little confused

"…Navar….that name seems familiar somehow, but there's something I don't get, you cant be a god-sent because well I cant draw energy from you, by the way not that you weren't cute before but I got to say I like your human form a little more." I really didn't want to reveal the fall scale of my powers, it seemed well a little overwhelming, and this was the second time I had been told that perhaps I was not like a godsents; I however decided to play it dumb, a little bit of mystery never hurt anyone right?

"I don't know, maybe it might have something to do with my powers." She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"Yeah your probably right, anyway the reason I've been following you is that these red eyes seemed be kind of drawn to you for some reason, not directly to you but like near you if you know what I mean" I shrugged my shoulders, I really had no idea, the only other time I had seen them knowingly was when I confronted them with Gunter Winchester

"I didn't know that no, that seems really weird though" she nodded and looked over the side of the building.

"I wish I could follow them…" complained katlin. I smiled and concentrated, after a little bit I found the men they were walking only just a little bit away from where I had confronted them, they seemed to be walking slowly and aimlessly, those men truly were strange.

"There only a couple of blocks away" she looked at me a little shocked

"You can follow them?" I nodded a little stunned that she didn't know that, but then of course she didn't

"Yeah, there not going very fast we could probably catch them if you want" she smiled and unravelled her gravelling hook contraption

"Yeah, you wanna come I could use a sidekick?" I smiled and cracked my neck as I smiled, and reverted back into my shadow form, my body reeking with feelings of over gratuitous pride and smugly said

"We'll see who's the sidekick" she motioned me to lead, and my body took every chance to show off. I jumped off the building doing a quick somersault until I flicked out a snare and rode the arc of the swing until I swung back doing a flip so I could see katlin's progress, her gravelling hook seemed to be elastic in some way, she was using it in the kind of way I used my snares, it was a little more graceful and I didn't see how she managed to swing through buildings with just one snare but she was doing with a manner of pulling her self up, letting herself go to straighten up and then flinging the snare again. I kind of felt like she was slowing me down a little so I pulled myself up onto the roof and waited for her, she pulled herself and walked over to me, she seemed a little puffed, but way less than she should be

"How do you manage to get around the city with that thing" I asked with a slight melodious tune to it, she smiled and shrugged

" I've been trained in yamakasi I'm more suited to the whole roof top to rooftop thing, I cant swing like you, but damn that looked cool." I smiled and shrugged, I sensed the men not to far from here and indicated such to katlin and got off running, I was surprised with katlin it was as if she never seemed to get tired, it was as if she could run forever. We soon reached a building where we could see the three men, still aimlessly walking nowhere. I looked to katlin as if she could manage the jump, she nodded apprehensively and I set off with a gracious jump and somersault katlin used her gravelling hook as a kind of bungie and then pushed herself off the side of the building and with a flip landed somewhere near me, the red eyed men sensing our arrival turned around. My body already lurching with rage, I grunted a-

"You do the talking" to katlin so I could focus on my body trying to not to kill them. She stepped forward and rather assertively pointed her finger, her infinity symbol shining white and then dissipating rather quickly she looked over to me

"There not godsents Navar" I shrugged still trying to fight my urge to stop my body eviscerating every part of them. I nodded to katlin to continue and tried to concentrate some more. Katlin continued

" Ok you three who are you working with?" they looked at each other as if communicating with no words. And then all three of them simply stared at me some more, my body was still spasmining with anger, I had to stop them staring at me, my body shot out some snares, gripping each of them around there torso's and fixing them to the wall, I focused on not letting them harden, Katlin looked over to me in wonderment, I simply shrugged I was only half conscious at this point, the rest of me devoted to stopping myself from attacking people. We both walked over to the three men and katlin grabbed one by the shoulders

"TELL ME!" she shook the shoulders of one of the men, but it was if they were dead, nothing seemed to be happening. Katlin looked over to me, I finally had control over my body, and the mad blood lust seemed to evaporate suddenly.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked katlin, she looked over to me and shrugged her shoulders

"I dunno its like, there just gone…" I grabbed one of them, I couldn't feel a heartbeat actually the whole time I could never feel there heart beat, somehow they had to be godsents I just didn't know how right now

" I cant sense any heat rate" I proclaimed to katlin. Who put her hands on her hips again as if to say "since when you could do that?" I simply smiled. An alarm beeped on her watch and she looked at it

"Wow…its late, Navar I have to go…but this is really weird, maybe we should meet up again tomorrow night, see if we can get some more on these I dunno…demons" I smiled and gestured towards the bridge

"Meet me at the bridge at 11 ok" she smiled and ran off towards the suburb areas. And I set off for home, I was thoroughly exhausted with this night and as per usual all I had was more questions and not enough answers

CHAPTER 14

And the hero will drown

Sleep. Today I got no sleep, my senses seemed to be working on overdrive, my body recalling the hatred and anger they had for those red eye creeps, what was it about those men that made my impulses, and my every urge want to destroy them, to eviscerate them so completely? It was so intense it scared me; my emotions were actually beginning to scare me, but how is that possible? How can ones emotions fight one's true desires? Was it really me fighting myself? Or was it something else? Maybe I'm a schizophrenic, with multiple personality syndromes; I suppose it was entirely possible. But I just didn't feel like it could be that, these didn't feel like voices, they felt like shadows, shadows that loomed over my emotions and impulses and my desires, shadows that twisted them and corrupted them until my every desire was anger and brutal primitive emotions. This 'shadow' of me was becoming stronger, it felt like every day the shadow was growing and diminishing my light but I suppose the biggest question was, what happens to me when I lose all my light? What happens when the day I can no longer fight this shadow. I thought back to the day I was trying to figure out my costume, and my body first changed back into that monster, the very same that I had transformed into in my fight with Simkin, perhaps I would turn into that thing, that inhuman creature, that monster, but as I often wondered, which one was the true me? Was it the masquerading human I am now, or was is it the inhuman monster? I pushed my hands through my hair as I got up, I was getting so sick of all this worry. Urges, impulses, emotions it was all the same really, I had never really known what soul searching is for someone, but I guessed that this was probably the kind of time one did so. And at least I knew where I wanted to do it.

I got dressed and walked out I was trying to find peter. I looked at my watch. It was about 6:30am, wow for me lately, that's actually fair early. I exited the hallway that went to my room and into the hallway that contained most of everybody else's rooms I could sense most of them where asleep from there feeble and slowed down heartbeats, it was fair enough considering it was still mildly dark outside. I supposed it was probably a little early for even peter to be awake, but I didn't want to go back to bed, I needed a distraction, anything would do. I stumbled myself into the dining room, and I was shocked to find Adem sitting there, drawing or writing in his journal I wasn't sure, but there he was. And next to him with his feet up and looking totally relaxed was a peter who was watching the morning news. Or at least appeared to be the news, but it was never any channel or reporter I had ever seen. Adem noticed me first and simply smiled. Peter seconds after bolted up and tried to act like he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. I simply smiled and laughed a little bit. I walked over to peter and sat parallel to him. He smiled to me as he looked around the room nervously

"Uh master Keelan… I was just. Um.-" I stopped him there

"Peter its ok, really… I thought I told you not to call me master, I really hate that. And anyway I would rather you enjoy life than constantly thinking you're here to serve Me." peter simply nodded and smiled as he began to relax a little. I could tell he was still feeling a little awkward so I decided to continue the conversation

"Hey peter, I was wondering if I could get a car to somewhere today?" peter smiled and straightened himself up

"Yes, of course, where too?" I smiled and started around the room

"I don't really know where it is from here, Ile just try and ask the driver" peter smiled and looked at his watch

"Well if you excuse me, I will go and organise that now, for what time…is one o clock good?" I nodded at him in agreement. And peter exited the room. I looked over to Adem. He smiled at me. This was the first time I'd really seen Adem since our exhibition match. And to be honest I was still a little embarrassed, or maybe humiliated, I wasn't really sure about what emotion I was feeling, but it was defiantly at least one part shame. The shame of how brutally I had attacked Adem, however I saw no feelings of irresolute anger. Just the simple shine and glow of Adem that always corresponded with his smile, how they could have coupled such a beautiful soul, with someone as corrupted and evil as Crispin black? It seemed like a crime to me, like caging a song bird when it had been free its whole life. I smiled back at Adem and decided I would apologise

"Hey uh Adem, I'm really sorry about what happened in that um exhibition match, I really don't know what came over me…can you forgive me?" I saw a flicker of emotion in Adem's eyes, naturally there was always emotion in Adem's eyes he was always the kind of guy that wears his heart on his sleeve, but for a second I saw something different, for a split second I saw fear and terror in his eyes. I stared closer to Adem as if to force him to reveal himself. Adem stared at the table for a while, as if recalling the horror. It was making me feel even guiltier; I was starting to build that horrible feeling inside my stomach, as if someone had dropped a hundred kilos inside it. Then Adem looked at me, he wasn't smiling, and he wasn't glowing with his usual warmth, it was as if he was searching me, searching inside me through my eyes, until he broke his odd glaze with his sombre but direct statement

"Something is wrong with you Navar Keelan, am I not correct?" I was so taken aback I almost fell off my chair, what was it with Adem always being able to completely bypass any usual expectations of him, just as you thought you had him figured out he would go and do something completely out of the ordinary that would make you completely reassess him again. But I stared at my hands for a while, was there really something wrong me? Yes, of course there was I don't know anybody else's feelings, but I didn't think people had to fight emotions with themselves to kill and eviscerate everything in sight. But what should I tell Adem? I didn't want to come clean about my double life, not yet anyway. But I think it would help to at least tell him something, maybe that's why this was becoming so unbearable. I only had myself to deal with all this madness. You always need someone to confide with. A soul can only deal with so much sin and emotion before it becomes too much. Maybe that was my problem, my soul was carrying the weight of the world and it was becoming so much I was growing mad. I looked Adem directly in the eyes and brought my hands up as if to demonstrate a point that hadn't been made

"Yes Adem, something IS wrong, something is very wrong" Adem stared at me with a sombre sincerity I had never known, his dark brooding eyes, showed so much empathy and remorse it was very touching. He placed his hand on mine and stared up at me obviously wishing me to explain myself. I scrunched up my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose, I don't know why people usually did this, but it just always seems like a habit when your under stress. I remembered back to the facility and recalled that a lot of doctors did this, most probably coz they were indeed stressed. I continued as I stammered through my sentences, it was so hard to put my experience into a cohesive sentence, none of it made sense to me anyway. It was like a piece of a puzzle that didn't have an end result, but I tried as much as I could

"Have you ever, no. ok do you ever get the impulses…to do things, you really don't want to do and then like um kinda like have an argument with yourself about what direction you should take" I heard my sentence, and even to me it made no sense, I couldn't imagine how Adem was going to figure it out. But again, this is Adem were talking about, and he was generally in the business of surprising people. He stared at me obviously trying to choose his word carefully.

"Fighting a war with one's self can is most often the quickest course to self destruction Navar Keelan" it was possibly one of the truest statements I had ever heard, and it seemed to relay to me exactly how I was thinking, I was destroying myself, I couldn't keep fighting myself and tearing myself apart when I was forced to, the more I split myself the more I would separate. At least now I understood my destination now, well at least the name for it. It was as if I was looking at map. And I was finally seeing my destination, I had no idea what was there but I just knew that was where I was going. I think I was almost crying I put my head into my hands because it was starting to feel like it was weighing more than anything I could handle, which was saying a lot. Adem placed his hand on my shoulder and spoke again

"Navar Keelan, I do not know what is happening to you, and I don't dare to understand it. But I know your soul Navar Keelan, a person such as you will only destroy yourself by allowing yourself to bear the weight of the world, self destruction is not an inevitability Navar Keelan, it Is a possible destination, a possibility among many, and self destruction is only generally bestowed upon those who have the feelings and the humility to accept it. A man can send himself into ruination, but only a hero can self destruct himself, only a hero has the nature to care about his destination. And only a hero can save himself. Have you ever heard of the ancient phrase 'and the hero will drown'?" I looked at Adem, my mind was racing, and I was so confused. Was I simply creating my own madness? I looked up to Adem with a confused look

"And the hero will drown?" he nodded

"It is a very famous and poignant statement I once read in a book I read while in the snake faction, it essentially means, in the end through all his righteous deeds the hero will drown in his own second guessing, and become his undoing, he will drown in all his problems. Because he cannot deal with them, most often or not because a hero is a role model, a hero is a pillar of strength that we all look up and idolise" the way Adem was talking, it was sounding like he was seeing inside me, and saying exactly what I wanted to hear, but it still didn't really help

"What's this got to do with me though?" Adem had a shocked impression on his face but he soon stared at me rather sternly

"Because Navar Keelan, you are a hero" I looked back Adem, I was probably even more shocked then he was a couple of seconds ago. I never really thought of myself as a hero, it was like Adem said; heroes were pillars of strength, they were strong and never second guessing there every decision. Or was it really true, will every hero eventually drown in a disaster of his own making? But then I never really thought of myself as a hero anyway, I just tried to do the right thing at the right time, and sure I saved everybody at the institute. But that was only because I wasn't faced with any other decision, or was it? I was already out of this mansion every night parading around in a costume, isn't that pretty much the definition of a hero? I supposed it was, but I still wasn't sure if I was doing for my own personal vendetta, or for my own pride and my own sense of wellbeing. I decide I couldn't think about it anymore, I already felt like I was going to break into two and I really didn't want to push the point. I looked at Adem with the sternest and admiring look I could

"Adem, thank you man." Adem smiled and shook his head

" I'm no hero Navar Keelan" I smiled and excused myself from the dining room. I was so buzzed out it was as if was seeing the world through a different set of eyes. Through depressing eyes, yet again I had all this information and nothing to do with it. As a matter of fact it was probably worse. Now that I knew I pretty much was going mad. I really needed to do some soul searching. I made my way up the left set of stairs, when I noticed Shane stumbling through the entrance between the stairs, I remembered that as far as I knew nobody but Shane slept down there, I knew or at least I thought peter slept in a room near the dining room somewhere. However I didn't take into account Mr Jackson and Carissa. However what surprised me was the way Shane looked, it seemed he was still pushing himself as hard as he could go, he had rings of tiredness around his eyes and his hair was all shagged and he still looked completely malnourished, and he was walking around like a zombie. It really hurt me to see Shane like this, with this psychological rebuild he was going through. It just even reinforced the idea, here was Shane literally drowning in himself. Drowning in his own expectations of himself, I called out to him, but he didn't hear me. I think he was on auto-pilot. So I decided to move on. I was looking for a specific room but I managed to look into Adem's room which was adorned with the pictures of all of us and the large raven faction banner hanging off the end of his bedpost. I almost woke Leigh and Linda up, there room was pretty much normal, but it was funny because they literally had sides of the room, one side adorned with all of Leigh's things and the other with Linda. The next room on the left was empty, and then the last room in the hallway on the left belonged to Kyle. His room was the strangest of all; it was as I had stepped into a jungle. There were plants growing all over the place and a lage twisted root of a tree that twisted up to the roof. His bed, while still a bed. Was suspended between two large trees, I simply shook my head, how Kyle managed to do any of this while he was sleeping, was completely beyond me. Finally I found the room I was looking for, it was the one on the end of the hallway on the right, adjacent to the hallway that lead into my room. Her room was probably the plainest of them all. I wouldn't have known it was hers if there wasn't some family pictures on her bedside table and even a picture of me and her I don't remember being in, what was it with me and not remembering photos? I slinked up to Nikki who seemed to notice my presence ever so slightly by rolling on to her back. She was so beautiful, just her face was enough to calm me and think everything was ok, just her presence was enough to calm me and forget about all my worries I had, she smiled while her eyes were still closed and patted the side she wasn't sleeping in, I eagerly obliged without hesitation. After spending just minutes being in her beautiful embrace I broke the silence

"Hey…Nikki?" she rolled around trying to still be asleep and mumbled

"What?" I smiled, breaking this silence and this joy almost felt like sacrilege to me

"Want to come for a drive with me today?" she rolled around more onto me and muffled

"…ok" before placing her head onto my chest and trying to fall asleep some more. It made me smile almost a little. This time the hero did drown, I drowned in her love.

The day came too quickly if you ask me. The sun seemed like an evil force trying to pull me away from staying in bed with Nikki, but of course all good things eventually had to come to an end. Nikki was finally awake she yawned and got in the shower. For a couple of seconds I was thinking about joining her. But I didn't want to ruin the moment by being smutty. Not that I considered it smutty, I just for some reason didn't. she got out of the shower steam rolling out of the door, I smiled a little; it was pretty cool that everyone seemed to have there own onsite, she smiled at me and kept towelling her beautiful hair

"Good morning gorgeous" I couldn't help but smiling stupidly, my body was burning up from simply being in her presence

"Good morning beautiful" I replied. She smiled some more as she walked over to her wardrobe to pick out some clothes. She spoke as she was doing so

"So where are we going navvy?" I smiled (even though she couldn't see it) and said coyly

"It's a surprise" she turned around and jumped up a little bit, her towel only barely hanging on. Stupid towel.

"Ooh really a surprise huh? Is it going to be romantic? Or I dunno… a boy thing?" I knew where I was going. And I was more going for myself, and naturally something that's purely for yourself isn't generally romantic. Nor did I imagine it to be a 'boy thing' I simply smiled and said in a playful tone

"Your just going to have to wait an see" she just smiled, she was dressed now, she wore a an odd cut top that was cut oddly around the shoulders so it drooped a little, it looked good on her, and a black mini skirt. As per usual she looked amazing. We walked out together and had breakfast and waited for the car to arrive to pick us up

The car arrived at one on the dot. Leigh, Linda and Adem bid us goodbye, Kyle was in a bit of a worse mood this morning because even another god sent child had gone missing. And Shane was still out in the battle field outside, doing what he was always doing. Killing himself. Nikki and I got in the car and I asked the driver if he knew of the destination I was talking about, he smiled and said he knew it somewhat, but he had g.p.s so he should be able to find it no problem. I sat in the back of my car and watched the sights go by through the window, until I started to recognise some landmarks. My stomach began to sink, It almost felt like walking to the snake faction, the way the building began to decay somewhat, I felt like I was decaying or at least rapidly descending into a place I didn't feel like I wanted to go. But for some reason here I was. Then there it was. The facility or at least the back of it. The car stopped and told me he will wait here until I needed to leave. Nikki looked at me a bit strangely as we got out of the car.

"Navvy what is this place?" I looked around, I sighed a little, the more I was here the more I thought I didn't really want to be here, it was like taking a trip back to my depressing past.

"Nikki…this was the hospital I stayed at, you know…before all this happened. I just thought if I came here I'd get some sort of, I dunno…closure maybe" she looked at me with some emphatic eyes, she placed a hand on my shoulder

"Lets go nav" I really appreciated her help on this, I was slowly losing my confidence. And my courage. There it was the place I spent so much time, pretty much simply dying and wasting away, wasting away into nothing. I scrunched up my face this wasn't a nice place it wasn't nice anymore anyway. Around the front the whole place changed. There wasn't my wing anymore, it appeared to be in the process of being rebuilt and there near it was a large garden, and an even larger fountain with a plaque on it. The water fountain was of three children playing, it was so hard for me to consider that I was once a part of this place. Until I heard Nikki call me over

"Nav come here QUICK!" I was so shocked by the urgency I ran over, Nikki was standing over the fountain and reading the plaque I didn't get what was so shocking, but her face seemed to have gone a ghostly white

"What's wrong nikki?" she simply said nothing but pointed to the plaque. I read it as quickly as I could

_This monument is dedicated to the fallen children with whom all perished in an explosion in 2007, those people whom are now within gods embrace will always be remembered:_

_David Kendall_

_Matthew diadem_

_Sarah Jones_

_Sinder king_

_Navar Keelan_

_God will be with these souls, for they truly where the most pure_

I stared at the plaque for what felt like hours. I didn't get it. It didn't even make sense; I just didn't get what I was looking at. It was almost aggravating, I was sinking into a desperate sort of anger, grasping at any emotion I could grasp. Until Nikki looked at me and placed a hand on my shoulder, I stared at her in complete disbelief

"What…what does it mean nikki?" she stared at it for a while until she kicked it violently

"It means they made a bloody bad mistake, THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS" I looked at it for a well, they bloody well had made a mistake, they seemed to think I was dead. How did they not know I was alive? I always assumed the institute would of told the right authorities? But then I also remembered that I was now part of a secret society. So much for soul searching I thought. I bent down and sharpened my fingers to a blade and cut my name out.

" That'll show those bloody idiots" Nikki said, she seemed rather infuriated. She walked off to tend to her phone that was ringing. I stared up into the confines of the hospital. I hated this place it was a place of depression, but this place was also my history. And I needed to remember where I came from. I needed to know at one point I was a different person, from this past, this past that I embraced. I could grow a new future; no way was I going to drown. I was going to swim to the surface of my problems. Nikki was even more stone faced than I she was before, I stared to her and she simply stared at her phone then on to me

"…Jade's missing, apparently she's run away" I stared at her and embraced her in a hug. Today was such an intense day; I had no idea how I was going to cope tonight. But for some reason in the back of my mind I knew jade had to be connected this whole kidnappings somehow, but why would they kidnap someone that didn't have powers? All I knew was tonight I was going to get the answers, get the answers before the tide pulled me in, and I really did drown.

CHAPTER 15

Crossroads

To say I really wasn't in the mood would be a fair large understatement. I really didn't feel like doing any of this hero shit anymore, it was only messing with my head even more than I really thought I could handle. And then there was the whole nikki situation, if she hadn't gone to her parents house I would of most probably stayed with her all night, heaven knows I wanted too. And then to find my name on a plaque declaring I was dead, I mean it was fair obvious I wasn't, but well to see your name printed on a plaque apparently dead, well it just does something to you, like it makes you think you're a ghost or something, which is a really, really horrible feeling. And then on top of that I just didn't want to have to deal with fighting against myself again, it was really starting to scare me and I was really scared about the long term effects, as Adem put it; I don't want to drown in my own problems. But after all this, after everything that's happened to me in this crappy day here I was; perching on the edge of the bridge that faced the main part of the city, waiting for a sign of katlin, with whom I said I would meet here at 11. And even her, well just her was annoying me today, she was such a mystery, a mystery I knew so very little about, I suppose it wasn't really her fault but I was just annoyed at everything tonight. I Imagine I would probably be pretty bad company at the moment. I checked around and I felt nothing. Which actually made me think about something, why did I have this totally extrasensory ability, the professor told me that my powers were a manifestations of my power absorptions, so how come I had the ability to sense people in a say in half a k radius (if I really concentrated) it never really occurred to me until now, I mean sure I had the ability to see out of every inch in my body as if I was simply a manifestation of eyes, but it didn't explain well everything. I supposed and this was only a theory; but perhaps upon my first absorption, (and possibly the ones I didn't really know about) that I was compiling the extrasensory abilities every single god sent had, and I was just possessing such hypersensitive abilities that they were bordering on pre-cognitive, bah it didn't matter. I sensed a rock flying to my right, even before I had time to act a tentacle sprouted from my shoulder whipped it away with savage delight. I stared down and I noticed katlin near the base of the bridge, of course I didn't notice her, she was always undetectable; which was frankly annoying, I was always so used to being able to sense people like a hundred meters before they actually got to me, that I just wasn't used to not being able sense somebody. I rolled my eyes and nosedived off the bridge, sure it was probably like a hundred meters, I really didn't care tonight. I landed near katlin with a huge noise, tentacles cushioning my fall as usual so I landed with no more than slight displeasure. Katlin rolled her eyes at me and simply turned away looking around her back for a second till she looked back at me and looked me up and down oddly again

"Took your time your notice alien boy" I snapped back at her a little as I retracted my mask. I pointed my finger at her a little bitingly

"You wanna stop calling me that?" she seemed a little surprised, even if she didn't show it much

"Bad day Navar?" I rolled my eyes and willed my mask back on

"You have no idea…" she punched me slightly in the shoulder slightly, which really kind of ticked me off. My body rushed with its usual violent responses. I squirmed a little inside; I so didn't want that to happen.

"Well suck it up, we got work to do, katlin fox does not tolerate anything but your complete undivided attention " I cracked my neck and looked around, we were still on the base of the harbour bridge. We needed to move

"Uh should we move this discussion somewhere else?" katlin shifted her gaze to a roof not to far from where we were, she began to unravel her odd elastic rope/ gravelling hook contraption, I rolled my eyes, (not that she could see that) and placed my arm out welcomely she looked at me a bit puzzled, as if was a come on or something

"Uh…what?" I cracked my neck again and pointed to the roof

"Grab on, Ile take you…frankly katlin, its just quicker" she seemed almost a little offended but begrudgingly accepted never the less, I wrapped my arm around her and a couple of tentacles cemented her in place. She felt warm, but she was so different to how Nikki felt, I couldn't really describe it as anything but different, still good but…different. I jumped up high with a fair amount of velocity and swung a wrist snare out to catch the building and pulled us there with a reasonable amount of ease. I released the tentacles binding katlin and she pushed off me quickly she straightened herself up and put her hands on her hips

"Well I have to admit that was a lot easier, but still I'm not sure I want to do that again" I laughed as I sensed the building; there was nothing here but some couple having an argument and a kid playing a video game. I sat down on the edge of the building and retracted my mask, was I really retracting the mask of changing my face, I guessed it was more probably the latter. Katlin sat next to me.

"So what's the plan?" I asked katlin as I looked over the city, trying to find some sort of solace in its view. I didn't.

"What do you mean what's the plan? You're supposed to know the plan?" I just sighed and said nothing. After a rather awkward silence, katlin spoke

"Well I guess… if were going to do anything we should find those men again and just hope that they don't do whatever the hell they did last time,,, Those red eyed demon guys…but where could we start?" of course it made a fair bit of sense. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to test my mettle against those guys again, what they did to me, what they made me feel was so odd that it was just unbearable. I sighed, I had no idea where to start, and katlin said that they were always in my close proximity, somehow always flying under my radar. Why was that? It didn't really matter I guessed that worse case scenario we could sit at wait for them to come to us

"You said that they generally come to me, or like near me right? Maybe we could just wait and see if they come near us?" katlin sighed and threw a rock off the side of the building

"Yeah…we could do that, but that's so BORING, this isn't very much like super hero work Navar, we need action!" I rolled my eyes as I shot off a tentacle to hit the rock katlin had thrown. Then suddenly I had an idea, the place where all of this began to get confusing as hell

"Gunter Winchester!" katlin looked over to me as she snapped her fingers together.

"Of course, that's brilliant Navar, and well if he doesn't want to talk we'll make the little snot talk" I looked around at katlin

"How do you know that idiot anyway?" she looked as if giving such information was probably worse than vomiting.

"Oh my mum was uh…'fiends' with his bastard of a father for a while. The kid's a fucking jerk just like his father, just because there rich and well pretty prestigious in the godsent world they think they can do anything, or have anyone" I think I hit a nerve. From what I could guess it seemed like katlin's mother might have had an affair with Gunter's father and even more, it appeared katlin seemed more pleased about the idea she might get an excuse to hit Gunter around a little. Katlin got up and rubbed the bridge of a nose before she willed herself to talk

"Hey its kind of a far way away to get to his place from here…do you think, as much as I hate this…that I could get a lift with you" I laughed as I through a rock off into the distance, it seemed to travel as fast as a bullet and disappeared off into the distance so fast it could have been an illusion. I laughed as I stood up and put my face back into a mask.

"Ah you just wanna get close to me again" she put her finger up and straightened her face into a bit of a furious look

"Ey don't get any ideas!" I laughed a little bit as I extended my arms. She begrudgingly put her arms around me, her pride shot a little.

The travel too Gunter's place was fairly uncomfortable, I could tell katlin really wasn't enjoying herself being strapped to me, but I could tell at some points she was, in some of my more graceful moments as I swung between building to building. It was however rather hard to manoeuvre properly with a human lump to account for, not that my body couldn't accommodate for it but it was just well…different. And then finally here we were standing in front of the rather luxurious townhouse with its wide bay windows and clean beige rendering, katlin squirmed at me a little and turned around.

"Nav I reckon I can get him outside if you just I dunno hide again" I shrugged my shoulders and jumped up and adhered just above the door, it didn't really matter people never really looked up much anyway, and besides I was still in my shadow form so I probably just looked like an odd shadow at first glance. Nikki peeled off the mask around her eyes. It was the first time I had seen her without the eye mask, it gave her a more human look, she really was a rather intriguing beauty, and she knocked on the door which seemed strange to me considering it was about 11:30

Nevertheless the door opened and a rather flustered looking maid appeared, katlin said in her most sickengly sweet bimbo-ish voice she could muster

"Can gunny come out to play?" I almost laughed if I wasn't supposed to be in cover. The maid didn't appear to seem taken aback by the statement at all. This to me could be due to two things, either Gunter was a rather frequent ladies man, or he was already expecting company, the maid replied rather nonchalantly

"Ah yes, he was just getting ready now. He should be out in no time" katlin looked up to me with a completely puzzled look but then back down to the maid

"Oh goody, can you do me a favour, don't tell him I'm here I wanna surprise gunny" the maid just nodded and put her fingers to her lips playfully and closed the door and retreated back into the house. After what appeared to be a couple of minutes Gunter exited the house, slamming the door hard with what seemed like very little care for the door. He was wearing dark black baggy jeans and a casual top with hair that was as messed up as he could get it, all in all it gave him the look of trying to appear casual, but it seemed like he hadn't really been 'casual' for quite a while. He squinted his eyes at katlin, until he smiled and laughed a little, he had an odd weaselly bellowing laugh.

"Is that katlin fox? Well, well, well I haven't seen you since we were what two or so years younger. Come to get a bit of old Gunter have you, must say you've taken your time" this guy was unbelievable! A girl he hasn't seen for two years randomly turns up on his doorstep and all he can account for it is that she wants to have sex with him? Why, coz he's so sexy and famous? I couldn't take it anymore, if my body wasn't ready to rip him up, I myself almost was. I flipped down landing next to Nikki, I said playfully

"Hello gunny" he squinted up his face in anger and pointed his finger at me

"Argh should of guessed that dirt would attract freaks to roll in it! What the hell do you two want from me anyway, and I thought I shot you?" Katlin gave me a weird look as if to say 'he shot you?" I simply laughed some more as my body forced out some tentacles that I couldn't stop.

"I'm a hard man to kill gunny…its simple all we wanna know is who those guys you were with the other night are…the ones with the red eyes?" even recalling those eyes made my body repulsed. Gunter looked at us both repulsed and confused ( I think the repulsed look kinda came naturally)

"Those guys…I dunno, servants…they came to collect me is all…what why do you want to know…why the hell should I tell you anyway?" I was getting even more annoyed with this idiot's attitude and I simply couldn't go control myself a tentacle wrapped around his neck and I through him into the air suspending him several meters above the ground, katlin was clapping encouragingly. Gunter coughed and splattered a little. Even sending some shrapnel through my tentacle which did little to nothing he finally seemed to make a signal that he had enough. He looked at me with enough hate that it could probably kill a normal person he pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and through it on the ground.

"This is where they were taking me, and lucky for you I got another second chance to get there too…you almost fucked up my last chance. I suppose it's free to anyone, but I dunno I'd say filth like you would probably get turned away anyway, don't you dare follow me either. Katlin…you disappointed Me." he simply sneered at us and got into the car that just arrived and drove off leaving us where we stood. Katlin shuddered as she picked up the piece of paper

"God I hate that worm" I smiled as I moved into read the paper as well. It appeared to be a print out of an email. It simply said

_Indeed, it is somewhat understandable Gunter Winchester, you however are invited back, and tonight we will be holding a ball for all godsents we could contact. You are welcome to attend and as such begin the process that was interrupted the time before. You will be required to be at 2723 black lake road. Sydney c.b.d at 11:30 onwards_

I looked at it for a while and then back at katlin, who seemed as shocked as I was. I really had no idea what I was looking at, It probably would have been good to see what was before the text we got to read, however what it did seem to imply was that there was some sort of party for godsents only, and that I had interrupted such proceedings for him to be initiated in what I wasn't sure. I looked at Nikki even a little more, until she looked at me

"I know where that is!" I looked at her, I didn't get what she meant

"Know where what is?" she waved the paper at me. Of course, what else could she of meant, I'm such an idiot.

"What do you think it is?" she shrugged at me but looked over in the direction of the main part of the city

"I don't know Navar, but whatever it is. I think it's all connected, I think this is somehow going to answer our questions, and oh. Where going" I smiled at her (even though I'm pretty sure my smile was both scary and disgusting at this point) and shrugged

"I guess we are" katlin seemed to be happy all of a sudden, wether or not this was coz we were finally getting somewhere, or if she just enjoyed the sight of Gunter being strangled. Suddenly from her fingers a white glow busted out, and then around her finger she was twirling what appeared to be a dagger of light, it was yellow and glowing, and the design was simple and two dimensional it had a handle with a loop around it and a simple curved blade design. I stared at her, not knowing what I was seeing. She rolled her eyes at me

"Mutant energies nav, remember. And Gunter being a mutant meant I could drain him, I didn't drain much but just enough so I actually had something to use. I should be able to make it there on my own now" I think I was just starting to understand Katlin's powers, and they seemed really cool. Or course what was hard to understand was why she couldn't draw energy from me, but then its probably the same reason the wristband disablers didn't work on me. I was just a new kind of godsent. Nikki gestured for me to follow her, she ran full pelt into a building letting off a light-energy assisted jump and then sending out a light whip to grapple her onto the top. I simply ran and flipped up there. This was becoming a fun race, she never seemed to tire though, and perhaps by converting mutant energies she could also convert it simply into body energy as well? Nevertheless she couldn't really beat me, I set out a snare and zipped myself along hurling myself into the side of a rather large glass building. Katlin jumped flicking a light whip into the side of the building I was now on. And then used some of her energy so she could double jump the distance to the next building it was as if she was walking on air. I swung myself around on a horizontal arc sending me flying right past her and landing again on the side of another building, tentacles assuring I didn't break anything with my considerable speedy landing. The only annoying thing about this whole race was the constant flashes my senses were giving me into every place I passed. We appeared to be making rather good time. And before I knew it we had apparently made it to where we were supposed to be. My sense was going mad. And the sick feeling in my stomach was returning meaning those red eyed demons must be here somewhere as well. And then I saw it, It couldn't be that simple could it? There it was what appeared to be a dance club and the sign above it read in flashy neon colours "the organization" Nikki looked over to me.

"If were going to sneak in, we might wanna go in you know incognito" I didn't know what she was talking about so I simply stared at her for a while, until she punched me in shoulder gently

"Wow what the hell is that weird skin shit anyway, it feels almost like liquid metal…anyway I meant get rid of the costume idiot, you cant go in looking like that!" I coughed a little, yet again. Of course that's what she meant. Idiot moment number two for tonight. I retracted my costume, katlin shook her head again, still surprised at the scope of my abilities. I was a little apprehensive to go down there, if this really was the organization, would they recognise me? And what risks was I taking going in there? How could they recognise me? They didn't know who I was, and I besides in a different point. I did have a new hairstyle which would help me somewhat, whatever it was I couldn't resist myself. I looked at katlin and we both jumped down into the crowd. There was so many people here. Some of these people looked a little odd. One kid had weird blue hair that constantly flowed like it was in front of a fan. Another kid even had horns. Katlin whispered into my ear

"Navar, every single on of these people are godsents, their energies are amazing!" I looked around, what the hell was this place anyway? Oh well only one way to find out. I really didn't feel like clubbing ( not that I had ever done it anyway) but I was still not really in the mood. There was a large entrance with about five turnstiles that led to stairs that appeared to lead into the club. And manning the turnstiles were the red-eyed men! My body lurched in anger, it took every bit of my resolve not to grow tentacles, and I had to keep up a normal appearance. Katlin and I were moving forward with the line, when we got close enough we could hear a repeating recording

"Every entrant must receive a stamp" I wondered what kind of stamp they were and I soon found out the red eyed men were stabbing the stamps on every entrants wrists, the stamps seemed to emit some sort of odd black mist seconds after they made contact with the skin, they also appeared to cause some sort of discomfort, but it didn't appear to be much. And before I knew it, it was katlin and myself's turn. My body was so enraged by the red eyed men all I could do was hold my stomach, it took too much effort to even speak. The recording was still rolling over. The man looked at me, and I stared back to the exit. He pointed to my web tattoo which he apparently seemed to mistake for one of their odd stamps. This was it. I was now at the crossroads, somehow I knew that my descending down the steps was going to lead into a much bigger adventure. I was uncertain to when I would be able to go back to my house. But this is what I was here for and I really had no choice I had to go forward, even if I didn't want too my body seemed to long for it.

CHAPTER 16

The black parade

Katlin and I descended what felt like a hundred steps, deeper and deeper we descended down, I think we were well underground the entrance when the stairs finally stopped. Katlin looked at me and shrugged. I think we were both as about as confused as each other. We were in a large lobby that seemed to have a dark gothic look with looming high ceilings adorned with sharp jagged edges that looked as if they could impale anyone easily. From the end of the hallway we could hear loud dance music. Sigh, clubbing. I looked over to katlin again, she was rasing her hands to her face as she turned to me

"Navar there are a lot of mutant energies at the end of this hallway…and I mean a lot!" I looked at her with a puzzled look, as far as this mystery goes; I couldn't even be bothered with trying to figure it out at the moment. I however interjected katlin's next statement

"Hey katlin, can you call me nav…Navar's I dunno just a fair bit formal for me…" she smiled and nodded Her infinity tattoo on the palm of her hand glowing white as we got closer to the end of this massive corridor. I could feel the music beginning to throb around the edges of everything, it seemed rather loud, it had a dark and heavy theme too it. It was quite intimidating as katlin and I walked towards the door. There were a couple of stragglers behind us, but we were generally in the last section of the people that had arrived to this odd what seemed like a nightclub. Finally we made it to the doors and pushed them open, they seemed as if they were about two metes high, and I was starting to feel like I was in some sort of underground castle. Inside the room that seemed to be about half the size of a football field was a massive crowd, the room itself was nearly completely full. It was dark and fluorescent lights were straying across the room giving it an archaic appearance. Katlin elbowed me and mouthed a 'what the hell' least it seemed like she mouthed it, the sound was so loud I couldn't hear anything. The heartbeats all around me were so erratic it was intense, not even the erratic and fast heartbeats, but the simple sheer amount of them around me. It was starting to overwhelm me . I still had absolutely no idea what was going on. Was this what Gunter was trying to get to? Some sort of underground rave, it all seemed like it was two unbelievable this was too surreal, had katlin and I gotten all this wrong? Had I gotten it wrong again, as I most of the time do. No, I couldn't have; this area was guarded by those men, those creepy eyed demons, so we had to be at least onto something. But this seemed so far away from what I imagined of the organization, I imagined a bunch of stuffed shirts sitting around the table and planning world domination. Was it all a pure coincidence? That the place with the red eyed men that had been responsible for a considerable amount of the crime wave in Sydney, and just how many of them were there? I reckon id least seen about ten or so, but then there identical, who's to say there not just the same ones I saw before. No there had to be some sort of connection, it couldn't all be so coincidental, and I suppose any connection is better than no connection, at least for once I was getting somewhere, I was so retarded at the whole detective thing. Katlin hit me in the shoulder, she was almost as bad as Nikki, why were girls always so violent with me?

"What?" I asked, but I wasn't all sure that she could hear me, but then she did seem to notice that I had said something. She pointed a ways in front of us, and there was Gunter dancing with some random blonde girl, my blood began to boil with rage. Not again I couldn't take all this duality it was starting to really fray my edges of my sanity. How long must one fight a war with himself till one side wins? And what happens when one side wins? Either way I pushed the violent urges out of my mind, I wasn't here for killing and maiming idiots, well not yet anyway. I think katlin was about to take the chance of her ambiguity and go and hit Gunter a little bit, she really hated him there had to be some even more complicated history there, then again he was a fair idiot in the first place, I'm pretty sure he probably had heaps of people that didn't like him but were just to afraid of his superiority or his money. But then the music stopped, every one stopped dead in there tracks and began to look around confused. Then the lights came on, making the room look even more larger than it did before, the spiked gothic points of the roof now becoming even more proliferate there was a large stage somewhere in the distance where the main focus of the lights were. A tall man began to walk upon the stage he wore a black cloak, which appeared to be made of leather, he made it to the centre of the stage and turned to face the massive audience and cracked a rather malicious smile. The man was tall and excellently proportioned, he had what looked like gloves and with metal knuckle points that accentuated his black cloak. His face was long and handsome, he had long impressive silver hair that had long bangs that framed the side of his face and came to a point somewhere past his chest, and they were mostly parted and formed the larger part of two clusters so his face could be seen. He had elegant eyebrows that fringed his shining blue eyes, his mouth was cracked open in a malicious smile that revealed perfectly straight white teeth, all in all the man appeared to be rather handsome, but his whole body seemed to reek with the tarnish of evil, even his face as attractive as it appeared seemed to scowl evilly. Nevertheless the man opened his arms when he was finished and began to address the crowd.

"Welcome my children, welcome all to the organization, I trust everyone is…enjoying themselves?" he said the question in a way that really didn't need an answer, even more he probably wouldn't get one facing such a massive crowd. I was still confused. I had no idea what was going on, why were the patrons a club in a nightclub being addressed by some sort of odd man? Nevertheless the man continued.

"And of course you are all here upon my generous invitation, now tell me…which one of you children is ready to become part of the future? Who here is ready to become the force for tomorrow?" the crowd roared in a ceremonious agreement. What did he mean by becoming a force for tomorrow? What the hell was going on? The crowd began to chant something, but it was unrecognizable under the roar of everyone else. The man began to continue again

"Are….you….ready to become one of the chosen?" the crowd began to scream and shout in a longing manner, I looked over to katlin who had her face screwed up in a confused fashion, she just shrugged at me when she noticed me staring at her, and transfixed herself back on the silver haired man, she seemed very unable to stop staring at him. He continued again

"And you all know what you are fighting for…you are all competing here to become a part of the generals project…naturally something you all already knew, now without further ado, the successful applicants thus far, those of prestigious bestowment of power, those the soldiers of misfortune ready to lead today into a far greater tomorrow….ladies and gentlemen, your generals!" the crowd was reaching fever pitch, even katlin was starting to get sucked in a little, hell even I was? What the hell was going on, why did I feel such admiration for this man, my whole body seemed to ache with appreciation and respect for this man I had never met, it made no sense at all. Even so behind him a spot that was previously drenched in darkness lit up and revealed four odd, seriously odd looking guys. The man spoke again

"And first and foremost ladies and gentlemen…'cancer' the silver haired man gestured his black gloved hand towards the first person in the middle of the four. He seemed about my age, if not a bit older. He had a bald head with white skin, his eyes shined an odd blue, and his angled face came into a point with a goatee on the end of his chin. He was wearing a black muscle top and spiked wristbands. And one hand was covered in what seemed like black tattoos of tribal like red blood cells, his baggy cargo pants were trimmed with large military style boots. The mans face scowled in a disinterested look. The crowd roared with praise and the one known as cancer smiled a little bit and went back to looking disinterested. I was still so confused I had no idea, who the hell were 'the generals' and I guess the more important thing was, what were they here for? This was starting to seem a little epic. The silver haired man, who I heard a couple of people next to me remark 'how cool the reaper is" I now assumed was called the reaper, pretty morbid name. The reaper silenced the crowd again.

"And secondly is the remarkably wicked, ladies and gentlemen…general number two… pestilence!" the reaper gestured his gloved hand to the man to the right of cancer. Pestilence had long spiked green hair which marked his green eyes; he had deep black rings around his eyes. And his teeth were oddly spiked, and I swear his tongue was green. His entire left arm had a black tattoo of what appeared to be a dying vine, or some sort of weed. He wore a black singlet and long yellow raver like pants. His face seemed to be rather glad of the crowd, but not to surprised, as if he was simply expecting such gratuitous praise. The man called pestilence rubbed the back of his green spiked hair sheepishly and took a bow graciously. The reaper called for silence again.

"Indeed, but this is only two of the four talented generals you yourself will soon posses the chance to become of, so thirdly is the fearsome and vicious 'crow'" the light focused on the weird vision of a man perched on a stool. He had black arms that had large gracious black plumage growing out of them, which he wrapped around most of his perched body. His hair was black and oily and spiked out to two directions in the back but came to a long spiked point that travelled down the middle of face to past his sharp chin. His deep black eyes that shined with a slight sparkle of purple were adorned with a meaning of deep malice, above his eyebrows on his forehead was a tattoo that resembled a look of a gothic style crow spreading his wings across his forehead. His lips which wore black lipstick were pointed up in a look of deep hatred, his clothes were hard to ascertain due to his black wings covering most of them. But below his cruel claw like fingers that had what looked like talon for fingers were black jeans, and his shirt seemed like it may have been black but it was to hard to tell. The crow did nothing but stare at the crowd with contempt, however the crowd still roared with applause for the crow, even though by his look he probably wouldn't blink an eyelid if they were to die right now. The reaper continued

"And lastly…but certainty not the least, the most recent of generals, ladies and gentlemen may I present for your indeed pleasure…welcome…sin" the light appeared over a cloaked figure, black mist billowed under the cloak and gave the impression that the spectre was simply floating on it. His cloak gave no sentiments of a identity except for where sin's arms were crossed you could see glimpses of what appeared to be jet black arms and clawed fingers. His cloak gave no glimpse of human identity except for glowing red slits in the darkness of the hood that reminded me of something off that comic book 'spawn'. Sin did nothing to acknowledge crowd, it was hard to even know if there was anyone behind the cloak, however there was something familiar about sin, I couldn't pin point it. But something, what could sin possibly mean to me? The reaper smiled again and clapped a little until silencing the crowd again.

"And now begins the moment everyone of you has been waiting for" a lot of the people around me seemed to be waiting for this moment in anticipation, I had no idea what was going on, but strangely even I was beginning to be swept up In the anticipation of this mystery event. The reaper smiled a beautifully malicious smile and clicked his fingers. Suddenly thick steel gates slammed down every exit. I was starting to worry, but the shadow of me was starting to gather control, now even more then ever it seemed to have a stronger hold on me then ever before. Katlin looked over me, her face was flushed with excitement, mine must have been the same because she simply nodded at me and turned her attention back to the reaper, who laughed gently but kindly at the people beginning to wonder what was going on

"…No matter, it is merely a preventative method, now before this really begins, I would ask though of us still not…endowed can you please follow my reavers to be processed, you will get your own chance to be one of our prestigious generals later on" what did he mean those not 'endowed' yet, did he mean humans? Like normal people? And if so what exactly what was did he intend to do with them? I was so confused; at least I knew something though about twenty of the red eyed men who were now wearing black cloaks with their hoods off. It seemed they were called reavers, mind you all I had was a name it gave nothing to why there were so many of them, or why they were identical or more importantly why the shadow of me wanted to savagely eviscerate every last on of them with as much brutal detail It could muster. Eventually what seemed to be all the 'unendowed' members of this large group, which seemed like about one third of the crowd had now gone into a separate room the reaper placed his long gloved fingers together and surveyed all of the crowd smiling handsomely the whole time until he clapped his hands together, snuck a look at the generals behind him and began to address us all

"And now, ladies and gentlemen its time for you to fight for your right to be here, you will be healed from wounds, but decapitation cannot be healed, so I would suggest trying to avoid that. And its quite simple, the last twenty left will proceed to the next round…go!" what the hell did he mean, what was this next round? I didn't know what it was but I guessed I probably needed to be a part of it. If this really was the organization, and I was starting to think that it was at least linked somehow or at least find out about the reavers. Besides, the shadow's hold on me was so great I was becoming more of a conscious then a front seat driver. I still had no idea what was going on until I felt something penetrate my stomach, I looked down and there was some sort of stabbing implement through it. I had just been stabbed, then I looked around me, everybody was fighting, the entire battle was going on around me and I hadn't noticed. I hadn't even noticed enough that I got stabbed, not that it really made much of a difference. It was too late for me, my body lurched into my black costume and I jumped forward pulling the stabbing sword from my stomach, the perpetrator who was a an average looking kid with glasses, was wearing a completely stunned surprise, I think he was about to ask how I had survived a clean stabbing, but I think he was too busy being terrified by my black costume, and he probably had every reason to be, my tentacles stabbed through the tip of his shoulders and flew him directly into one of the spiked pillars on the top of the roof which was about 8 meters in the air. I suddenly remembered katlin. I looked over and yelled out to her, she had two large energy broadswords and was slashing the on comers with great ease. She yelled out to me, her face seemed to be alight with vicious pleasure, she yelled out to me

"Nav, mutant energies remember…their all mutants…I'm fine look after yourself solider boy" she really did like she was handling herself rather well, she was firing off energy fragments and cutting people with her large flat energy swords if they got to close. Those that had been slashed fell to the floor there wounds healing with a weird black mist. I couldn't concentrate anymore, my body roared in blood lust. Two people ran at me and met two tentacles that threw them in different directions of the room, my body sprouted more tentacles, at least twenty. All ensnaring the crowd around me throwing them into the air in a massive wake of people, my body roared again and I could see a couple of people beginning to second question wether or not to attack me, one girl jumped at me, her face had a lot of acne, and she wore an expression of pure determination. Which met with my clawed hands, they sunk into her chest until I threw her across the room, I needed to stop this carnage, this was so not like me and I was losing control, with all this options for chaos and carnage and destruction my shadow wasn't about to let me have control easily, a rather younger looking kid with long hair lunged at me, I flipped over him using his shoulders to jump up into the air, I snared myself up to the roof and stuck myself there so I hung upside down observing the battle. This battle was insane. There were probably over a hundred people all massing about on each other, everywhere people were falling down and clutching at their wounds. I even spied Gunter. He was shooting people all around him, and even intelligently throwing what appeared to look like ball bearings but were about half the size of his hand. They landed on someone's chest and exploded into a million pieces of shrapnel taking out not only his target, but the fray around them as well. I had to admit even for an pompous ass, he was actually doing pretty well. I was thinking about fighting him, something both me and my shadow were in agreement with, when I noticed some light swords edging towards him, naturally she would want him. I would leave Gunter to katlin. I was deciding what to do when to my right a gooey tongue went to ensnare me, there was really no chance it was going to connect, and I had way to much warning. I grabbed the tongue with my hand and wrenched him off the wall and threw him violently to the other side of the room, leaving me to watch his shocked face the whole time. I'm pretty sure that was me, not the shadow; it was getting very hard to determine the line. I flipped onto my legs so I was hanging upside down and pushed off with an intense velocity. I landed in a pool of my own black tentacles taking about five people upon my landing. From the back I felt heat, I turned around, it appeared this kid could breathe fire, I almost laughed. He was like a fire ant compared to Shane's powers, I concentrated on his erratic heart and simply slowed it till he became unconscious, and I did the same for about 20 people around me. They all suddenly fell down instantly. My shadow roared in excitement and flipped me over the masses. There seemed to be about forty people left, apparently twenty to go before something happened. I noticed Gunter still throwing shrapnel grenades into the fray; katlin was using her light energy to walk on and to slice some people from above. I stretched my fingers out to stab a bunch of people. And threw them to the side, my body roared in enjoyment as about ten tentacles stretched out into the air to join the war cry, when suddenly a voice from the back yelled

"STOP!" I turned around, the reaper had called for us to stop, it gave me enough time to get control over myself for a few seconds, and I reverted back into my normal form in the interim. At least fifty reavers encircled us, again. Just how many of these people were there? There seemed to be an endless amount of these identical men. My body roared in anger, I was being split apart so intensely I could only fall to my knees, black tentacles whipping around my back trying their hardest to get some piece of the red eyed men. Out of the back of my eye I saw katlin was about five people from Gunter who had apparently survived. The reaper clapped in the silence. And the generals behind him joined in begrudgingly. The reavers formed a line to an exit that just appeared and the reaper spoke again

" Well done you lot, absolutely extraordinary…you all earned your part in this group of twenty, now if you will follow the reavers, they will lead you to some dorms where you can sleep this battle off, and fear not all these injured will be taken care of, tomorrow you will get more answers" I was still on the ground clutching at my stomach as I looked around at all the unconscious people on the floor, this battle was brutal, I couldn't believe I had just done that, nevertheless I needed answers, and I didn't see any exit out of this place yet. So I limped my way to the dorms. Katlin helped me, obviously thinking I was hurt, little did she know I was simply trying to control my shadow's impulse to destroy the red eyed men. Something that took all my energy.

CHAPTER 17

Duality

This place was odd; it was well how to put it simply other than odd. I had followed a bunch of people to a large room with a sterile feel to it, I guess by sterile it's more of a nice way to just say, there was very little of anything. Simply beds, no windows and no other trimmings. The room was big enough for about ten people. Katlin had positioned herself next to my bed. And I simply threw myself on it, I was too tired to socialise, I was too confused to work anything out. Where exactly was I? What was this place? I had somehow stumbled upon some sort of secret training area for some people called 'generals' what the generals job was alluded me even more, I simply knew that their leader, this mysterious 'reaper' seemed to obsessed with the idealistic dream of a new future, one where I guessed us, being of supposed genetic superiority would rule. I guessed that explained the people I had encountered so far, this whole place seemed to be filled with a mixture of pompous jerks and social outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn't want to find in an alley way, the kind of people who grow up causing trouble, the kind of people that became murders. It seemed to me that feeding these people with the notion that they were the future was probably a dangerous exercise, a future filled with egomaniacs and sociopaths to me didn't exactly seem like the kind of utopia the reaper seemed to talk about. The only thing I think seemed certain was at least somehow in this place I was closer to getting some answers to my questions then I had been in a long time. The battle was washing through my mind as I lay on my bed, it was like looking at something on a movie screen, because I was remembering the things I did, the things the shadow of me did, and it just didn't feel like me. I know in my heart and in my core, that it had been me that had done all the atrocious things, I had been the one so thrilled in the blood lust of battle that I was becoming feral. But in the same way it wasn't. It was my body, it was my shadow, but my very soul seemed to deny the possibility that it was me, or at least all of me committing such things. I took a deep breath, this duality was really tearing me apart, it always had been but it was getting worse, even more so in this underground castle, what was it about these walls that's strengthened the resolve of my shadow so deeply. However brutal the battle had been, there was still twenty that had survived. Twenty out of the hundreds that were there before, unfortunately Gunter, or as he liked to be called 'Gun' had survived the massacre this was either a good thing, good in the way that it means katlin and I could have out own time to cause him pain, there it was again, violence, the thing that seemed to rule my every instinct, my thoughts always turned to that of pride, greed or violence. I pulled myself away from the bed, sleep was pretty much going to be impossible there was just too much on my mind. Katlin was over to the left of me taking with a crowd of people I decided I would join her. There was about five of us in this room, it seemed odd considering there was enough beds for about twenty, but most of the others had filed into the room gun went into. Katlin smiled and moved over so I could sit next to her on the bed. She pointed to the people and began to introduce everyone.

"OK guys, this is Nav…and um the two sitting on the bed are darius madden and Elijah black" my mind recoiled for a second as I stared at the two boys in disbelief. It was pretty obvious now that she pointed it out that they were the sons of two of the people I had known at the institute. Darius madden had spiky orange hair that was pushed back to spike out at the back and some of the top, he had fierce eyes that belayed a sense of rebellion to me. He wore a plain black jumper with blue jeans and stared at me for quite a while. Next to him was Elijah black, who had long black hair that met in spiked smooth dreadlocks somewhere near his hips but billowed over the bed he was sitting on. His eyes were a dark blue, and had an odd sense of sadness to them. He had a pointed tattoo under his right eye, and a very angular face. He wore a grey shirt with black spiralled tribal patterns over them and baggy black cargo pants. I looked at the two with a great amount of caution, what was I too expect from the children of two of the oddest adults I had ever met? It turned out pretty much quite the opposite, Elijah knew very little of his father other than the fact he didn't like him much, he left him and his mum at a young age, his mother left crippled after the accident, he had spent most of his life looking after his mother that had recently died. He didn't talk much after that. Darius had lived in the shadow of his fathers fame his whole life, and was subsequently ignored by the supposed 'great man' he grew up trying to gain his attention by doing more random acts of petty theft and vandalism until he finally gave up, since his father had died he has given upon his life of petty crime but it seems he still has a spark of his fathers ego, even though he would never admit it. The other person was a Japanese person called Hiro tyagaro he had medium length hair that was the usual straight style every Japanese had, his eyes were stern and fierce and he had a pretty constant visage of someone emotionless, however it seemed his whole life he had grown up with his father who's family for generations had been a dynasty of proud samurai's. his father had been the only one in ten decades to renounce the idea and decided it was better to live a normal life of white collar work, Hiro who was disgusted with such began to secretly train himself in the way of the samurai, instilling in him high senses of honour and courage. One day his father was killed helping a woman being attacked by a gang, and since Hiro has stopped believing in the ways of the samurai and of honour and righteousness. It had sent him upon a spiral of an archaic life and only since has he begun to see the error of the ways. I found it interesting that everyone here seemed to be linked by a death of some sort. I myself had heard of death, and too been around it a lot back in the hospital, but as far as really seeing death itself, I was rather unexperienced. Katlin and I spent the night talking with these three. Talking of the experiences these three had experienced in their lifetime.

Morning, how could morning come when there was no light to indicate such? It still seemed as dark as it ever was. Everything in my world seemed to be turning to dark, it was as if I was drowning in shadow, it was a fairly morbid way of me to think about it, but I guess morbidity was just one of those habits I had to get rid of. But this shadow of me, this violent and primitive beast inside me seemed to be growing in influence every day, it was now hard to push its menacing tendrils away from my thoughts, a place they had never really managed to protrude before. It seemed this place, this place I so hoped was all a weird dream before I opened my eyes. Before me was not a luxurious bed post and a beautiful white sculpted roof, no before me was the gothic loops and the cold feeling all gothic architecture seemed to emanate. And beside me, the bed was empty. However the three other beds were still filled with sleeping people. I felt more tired than I ever had before, I felt more tired than I had when I went to bed, it was as if my body had been fighting a war without my knowing all night, I looked at my hands, perhaps it had. I got up and moved silently down the room and past the three sleeping people. I had learnt last night that darius powers where the same as his fathers. as were Elijah's however he also had the ability to repair light wounds, also his poison seemed to manifest in an adhesive rubber like substance that allowed him to grip to surfaces as well as sticking people in place with a deadly adhesive substance, apparently his mother had the healing power a power but was not enough to cure her crippling condition. Darius had taken on the name 'firebird' in a rare homage to his late father. Elijah had only just really decided on a name, and with his pretty apparent hate of his father, actually it wasn't hate, more just the fact he didn't really acknowledge his existence. He decided having a name to pay homage to the illustrious Crispin 'venom' black. He decided to call himself toxin, he had told me he chose this because he was starting to manifest powers that made no sense to him, such as the ability to adhere to surfaces, and such regarded his blood as a mysterious 'toxin' Hiro had chosen the name 'immortus' due to his nature to pretty much recover from any wound he sustained, he hadn't tested the limits of it beyond some bad stab wounds and once his arm got cut off, but said he was pretty sure it was limitless. This kind of gave me the impression that perhaps powers were generally hereditary; I flashed questions in my brain about my father, but pushed them aside as quickly as they came. However the reason this had any relevancy was because I was trying to sneak past them, and none of there powers would be linked to me not being able to get past them in silence, none that I knew of anyway. I made it out the door and the large cold hallway stood between me and my freedom, to where I didn't know but something deep inside me wanted me to explore this place, and for once it didn't feel like the influence of the shadow, or was it simply so powerful now that it could disguise itself so that I could no longer distinguish the difference anymore? However my answer was soon answered when five or so cloaked reavers walked past me, apparently they were patrolling the hallways, and instantly my blood began to boil and my stomach lurch with that feeling of hatred and longing. I wrenched myself back into the dorm and kicked the door closed silently as I wrestled with myself, giving myself everything I had so I would stay in this room, on this floor. And not out there committing such horrendous acts that even a murderer would shun them. I was tearing, I could feel it. My body was beginning to hurt so much it felt like I was splitting in two, like my body was simply deciding to separate because of an argument. Until it finally began to calm down again, I could feel my senses becoming back to normal, if you call normal being able to hear the fluter of a birds wings on the roof hundreds of meters away, if you call normal being able to sense the blood flow through everyone's hearts, nevertheless I was as back to normal as I ever was. A voice broke my silence

"Nav what the hell are you doing, the bed not comfortable enough?" I forced my eyes open, the voice belonged to katlin, one of the reasons I had decided to venture out of the dormitory. However she looked different. She wasn't wearing her usual black leather get-up, no she was wearing a short pink tartan mini-skirt and a tight black singlet. She looked fantastic, but somehow or another I could tell she wasn't exactly pleased with her new look. Even more surprisingly was the fact she had managed to sneak out without the reavers finding her. I voiced this question while I was still on the floor

"How did you-?" she stopped me before I complete the question as she bent down she sent in a hushed manner

"Undetectable, except for the naked eye remember" I rolled my eyes, naturally of course she was. Not even my extrasensory senses seemed to be able to pick her up, something that was a constant thorn in my side. She had a worried look on her face as she must of seen the grimace I had on my face

"Nav what's wrong? Was it the reavers again?" I got up and nodded to her silently, she continued

"Yeah I noticed a couple of them as I was exploring, I managed to steal these, well I suppose there clothes, from some girl who was still sleeping being undetectable does have its bonus's, but seriously we have to find out what the hell it is with you and those reaver things" I got up and cracked my neck and sighed as I looked at my hands then back to katlin who was also getting up and trying her best to pull her mini skirt down more, even though it seemed like a futile attempt. I suppose I would of found it funny if I wasn't so depressed. I straightened up my face into a serious one and asked katlin questiongly

"Did you see anything, well worth seeing? Any idea what this place is yet?" she looked up to the roof and then at me with a rather disappointed look

"Nope nothing, mind you I didn't really do any sleuthing I just kind of went from here to the other dorm where most of the other people are staying." I sighed again and looked around as somebody was stirring, my body stirred with violent thoughts of actions to take against the random surge of movement, and then revealed it to simply be Elijah black coming to see what was happening, I pushed my thoughts away, as hard as it was, like pushing a ten ton brick out through a pin hole. I pushed them away. I simply smiled weakly at Elijah and pointed to katlin playfully

"We were just talking about katlin's new outfit" Elijah looked katlin up and down, I noticed his heart begin to speed up a couple of beats and he simply smiled to her and said

"Doesn't beat tight leather in my book" katlin rolled her eyes and sent a furious look my way, Elijah simply walked back to his bed and began to tinker with something he pulled out his bad. When suddenly from no where a vision appeared in the middle of the room, the vision, or hologram I wasn't sure, was of the reaper, he smiled sweetly his perfectly white teeth shining through, until the vision took a couple of steps forward and rapped his hands together, he looked around the room giving me the impression that he could apparently see us, and finally spoke in his masculine voice

"…Good morning children! I trust you have all slept well? (he didn't wait for an answer) excellent, you presence is required in the main hall, which of course you all remember from your…adventure last night, some reavers will be here to escort you soon" the vision shimmered out of existence. I noticed Hiro bow to the vision as if it were a person of authority before grabbing his katana he apparently inherited from his grandfather and tied it to his belt as a precaution. Darius emerged from the shower cubicle clothed and said he heard, and was smiling slightly, he two seemed to be coping with his own sense of duality, his fathers blood flowed through him, and with it came the love of battle, and the love of your own ego. But he disliked his father's egotistical ways, and yet struggled to not become the man he hated so much. Katlin stared at me with worry when she heard the word reavers. I knew they had arrived when my body began to start down its same path. I was losing it again, until a hand covered itself over mine, I could feel it surge against mine, I knew it must have been katlin's even though she couldn't drain my mutant energies I felt her hand was calming me somehow, but yet I felt guilty in the back of my mind I tried to picture nikki, I pictured her face and the way her simple presence managed to calm me. Before I know it we had made it to the main hall. The reavers backed off to a surrounding circle far off enough that it gave me some reprieve. The stage was the same as it was before, the four generals were behind the reaper, still with the same expressions, still with the same kind of clothes. And in front of them smiled the reaper, in his sweet handsome expression he wore. His silver hair shining in the light that shined from the roof many meters above us. Behind us however was a grandstand that wasn't there before, and upon them sat at least fifty very tired looking teenagers, they all looked upon the twenty of us with a mixture of interest and drowsiness. I pulled myself away from them as soon as the reaper began to address us twenty that were left. Darius's eyes were twinkling with anticipation, and Elijah simply stared at the reaper with the same odd adoration I too found myself stating at him with.

"Welcome back you, the successful twenty. And yes, today you will battle closer to you're goal, and I have also given you the privilege of an audience, behind you, you can witness the chosen few to gain the powers not given to the usual droll that is humans, behind you can witness the forerunners of future technology, those chosen to use the prototype of technology known as a synthesized mutant gland, and tomorrow those of you successful here will get to witness them battle against each other, which more than promises to be interesting" I looked around at them, maybe that was why they were so tired? They were all getting a mutant gene of their own. I had only one experience with a synthesized gene and that was with the one with the Simkin, I had the inkling that he was one of the first and that his was probably clunky and ineffective, he did turn into that odd spectre when he stole other peoples powers, would these people also be corrupted by their own gene like sinder was? Then suddenly a flash of something in my mind appeared, I flashed my attention to sin as he floated there with his glowing red eyes, and arms crossed, was it possible, somehow possible, that sin…was sinder? Was this why there was the odd feeling of familiarity with this sin? My stomach sunk as I stared at the odd black spectre, I simply hoped in all my heart that he wasn't, I truly hoped sinder was dead. I looked around as my mind flashed with the excitement of battle, and then with a clap of the reapers hand's katlin grew some large energy swords. With the clap of the reapers hands, gun stopped entertaining a bunch of bemused girls with his cheap tricks and began to find himself some better tactical ground. And I had little time to decide what to do, my body was already changing even before I thought about it, my hands were growing black and clawed my mouth becoming tooth filled with a tongue lashing around it. And before I knew it I had changed into my black blood suit. It pulled me along towards a blonde haired girl. A tentacle simply stabbed her through the stomach before she had time to act, and flung her aside like a piece of dead meat. That was it! I was sick of this duality, I was sick of this violence and primitive beast within me. I stopped dead in my tracks and focused everything I had on this black goo, I tried to forget there was a battle around me, I tried to forget that just beyond my senses were numerous reavers who were every now and again floating into my senses. I pushed as hard as I could. Trying to rid myself of this horrible black goo and all its brutal benefits it bestowed upon me. I could see my fingertips starting to reveal an amount of red, it was almost one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I concentrated more, as much as I could. The black was slowly ebbing away at my fingertips revealing a red underneath them I could even feel the slight itch of my black scar returning, until a flash of the reaper's eyes ran into my every sense, it flooded through me for that one second, and that second was all it took for me to lose control again, the black, the shadow took its hold on me again, now stronger than ever before, where before its influence was just suggestions, ideas and flashes of violent and evil acts, it was starting to shift the other way, my good will was becoming the suggestion. I closed my eyes and breathed in some air, until I could sense an attacker to my back, It appeared to be one of the people who slept in the dormitory that contained gun, he had short curly blonde hair and an egotistical look upon his face, he was just one of the overly egotistical beings that existed within his place. A tentacle flipped from my back and wrapped itself around the blonde boys next; I could feel his heart beating intensely. My body stabbed its clawed hand through the blonde haired kid's shoulder as it slammed him against the cold ground, and then without warning gruesomely bit into the boys throat, I could feel his muscles and bones crunching around my vicious teeth, until the creature, the creature I had turned into had its fill and screamed into the air in feral rage until it leaped up and began to find its next victim. I was horrified I couldn't believe what had just happened, it was like the battle when I had finished Adem in the most insanely grotesque way possible, I couldn't feel the boy's heart beat. I think he was dead. I tried to stop myself from moving, I tried to dig in my heals and simply find enough strength to not move, no such luck, at first my body resisted then simply strengthened its resolve to find a new victim. It found two people attacking darius madden, who was now in his war bird form and was using its wings two set the two on fire, two tentacles from my back grabbed the two around their necks and then slammed them into the ground, I could feel some of there bones crack upon the impact, I used all of my influence to move myself away from darius, I willed myself to focus on another tactic, not to stop, I couldn't stop myself anymore, but maybe, just maybe I could make it focus on those I didn't care about, I looked around and found gun who was fighting Katlin, he was throwing the shrapnel grenades at katlin, who was deflecting them with energy shields, however gun seemed to be tiring fast, whereas katlin seemed to only be getting more energy as the battle again, I thought to myself that it must be great to be able to never really grow tired, to be able to convert other people's energy into my own. However my own hatred of gun combined with the feral rage of my black blood suit meant that my next target was now Gunter, my body thrusted itself forward with its powerful legs and I landed with finesse next to Gun, four tentacles sprouted from my back were striking the air like vicious snakes. Gun turned his attention to me and looked me up and down with a sense of disgust and terror. Katlin herself for the first time flinched a little at the sight of me. I imagined had I been in her shoes I probably would of too. I lunged at gun and slammed him down to the ground, I could feel bullets and other shrapnel flying through my body, but my body wasn't even bothering to even tell me there should be pain there anymore, it simply ignored it. My tentacles pinned gun in the spot and then two more sprouted threatening to impale him upon them. Until a voice in a background yelled;

"Stop!" everyone simply did, katlin stopped, even Gunter had begun to stop, but my blood suit wanted more, the shadow wanted more carnage, until I felt the reaper's gaze upon me. And surprisingly the suit reacted obediently. I stood away from him, and simply stood there waiting for the next order, this seemed as good as time as any to revert back to my normal form. There were ten of us left, of note were; Katlin, gun, darius, Hiro and Elijah. The others just seemed to be random people I didn't know, not that I exactly knew much. The reaper turned his attention to all of us as the rest of the generals clapped weakly behind him.

"Well done children, well done. You ten have passed this elimination round. Tomorrow will be a rest day where you lucky people will witness the battle between the first lot of people with synthesized gene, this will be an amazing paramount of well, everything the future we are shaping will have for us" I looked over to the people sitting in the grandstand behind us, they didn't really look like the paramount of the future to me, but then what was the paramount of the future anyway? I sighed in some air as I walked over to katlin. My stomach began to lurch as the reavers formed a row towards our dorms. I was starting to feel like a prisoner, which was probably a fair sure feeling, because we by all means were. All I knew was that tonight I was going to get some answers.

CHAPTER 18

Behind crimson eyes

It was the strange; strange being that this was the first time I had really thought about all this. Well like everything, I mean sure I've thought about things, but never on the whole scale, never until now. I looked at everything that had happened since I arrived at my new house and settled into my new life. It seemed well…odd, I've never really taken the time to asses my life through a time line, and when I do, well it just seems odd. But then I suppose anything with themes that involved people swinging from buildings, and tearing their friends apart temporarily would always seem odd. But even so. Just acknowledging my past and its influence upon my future was a weird step for me. And here I was, after everything that's happened to me, after all the madness, after all the exhilaration, here I stood. In this dark cold gothic hallway, the shadows around me playing their masquerading games, but then, who knows they could be real, anything was probably possible. This place that I still didn't know what it was really called; I always just called it the underground castle. Coz well it pretty much was an underground castle. I stood in the shadows; against my best wishes katlin had insisted I wear my black suit. Mostly coz it blended into the shadows, so I could sneak around better. But I didn't really know how I could control this shadow of me anymore, it was so strong these days, it had its influence everywhere in me. There wasn't a moment where it wasn't sinking in its evil fangs into my mind. And letting it control me wasn't my idea of fun, but nevertheless katlin was right, this would help me get around a bit easier, and fortunately for her a beneficial offshoot of her powers was that she couldn't be seen, or detected except by the naked eye, she could even dampen that weird sense I had that kind of told me when things were coming, which kind of ticked me off because I had learnt to rely on that sense a lot. Even so, here we stood in this dark hallway with all but a few high hung lanterns for light. The atmosphere was very ominous, probably owing to the fact that we were sneaking around in the shadows of some creepy underground castle. My biggest hope was that I could avoid the reavers, because whatever they were, they sent my body into spasms of rage, almost uncontrollable rage up until now I had been able to subdue the shadow's influence to maim and eviscerate every reaver I saw, but now. With it's influence over me so strong, and wearing this suit, I just didn't know how much I could be trusted to control myself. I decided I'd be better crawling across the wall why katlin walked, I couldn't really tell you my justification, perhaps I dunno I would like simply like a shadow eschewed across the wall, rather than a walking and talking one. We had reached a t-section at the end of the hallway that led to our dormitory, further ahead was the dorms of the other kids, and beyond that I'm not so sure. And to my left led to the main hall which id been too a couple of times, katlin looked over to me as I was trying to find a comfortable way to stand on a corner piece of a wall and whispered

"Which way should we go?" I flipped off the wall and landed next to her, for this point at least it was easier to stand. I looked down the way to the main hall; there was really no point in going that way mainly because I had been that way a couple of times already, and though I hadn't seen much coz id been concentrating on not killing the reavers (even though every single bodily impulse wanted too) I hadn't really explored the other way so I decided that would probably be the better way to go.

"I reckon we should probably keep going forward, we've been to that hall thingy heaps of times" katlin nodded and began to traverse forward, I jumped back onto the side of the wall and began to crawl along with her. This whole place was like a maze, it was so hard for me to take in the scope of it all, I mean who would of ever thought that a place like this would exist, that there would be some sort of weird gothic catacombs underneath the main district of Sydney, and if so why has it only now been found? Then again who was I to know that it hadn't been found? Either way, going through this place, it felt like it was impossible to even know where I was. At one point katlin and I decided to stop, and try and figure out where we were. We had reached a point where the path split off three ways, the light was only getting dimmer as we continued and was becoming increasingly hard to figure out which way to go. I jumped down from the wall and into the middle of the intersection of paths

"This place just keeps going forever man!" I retracted my mask and spun around a little bit to soak it all in. katlin who was wearing her leather get-up again smiled and started to peak through the other corridors. I had a feeling that these crossroads I was now standing in front of, somehow every one of them would hold answers, or problems. Didn't most answers always come with there own set of problems anyway? In my experience they always did. Every answer always came with more questions, in that way did the universe ever give us any answers, or merely simply passages to more questions, in that way it seemed like the search to the truth to all things was already a futile quest, upon finding the ultimate answer wouldn't one simply just get bombarded with more questions of an awesome magnitude. I wondered if that was why humans didn't know what the meaning of life was, probably because we couldn't handle the answer, us humans are adaptable, but I imagine not that adaptable. Either way, I still didn't know which hallway to go down. I looked over to katlin who shrugged her shoulders at me. Great no one really ever really helped me with my questions, maybe it was better that way? Anyway I decided to randomly decide which way to go. I chose the left path, because it had the most light. Katlin flicked on a dagger of light which she used to help illuminate the pathway. I passed a room that looked medical and had a sign saying "patient room" I shrugged my shoulders no use going in there. I passed some other rooms that simply had no appeal to me, it seemed as if we were funnelling our way through to the administrative section of wherever the hell we were. We entered one room that seemed for no particular reason seemed to appeal to me; katlin threw a shard of light into the side of one of the walls in order to illuminate the room. We seemed to be in some sort of office room. There was no computers simply papers and files thrown about haphazardly. Katlin and I spread out and tried to read the papers, katlin threw a couple more shards into the walls at different places and it gave the room a decent amount of light. Most of the files seemed to contain administrative crap about money investments and a bunch of mumbo jumbo about money in goings and out goings, that seemed as a about as irrelevant as they could get, least in retrospect to me anyway. Finally katlin called me over, she seemed to think that she had found something interesting. She sat down and put it into the middle of us, it seemed like a new document, but it had been photocopied a couple of times. The title of the document in big bold letters read

"**The Legion Program"** something about the name begged me to read on. It read as such:

_The legion program, the foremost evolution of technology that the organization has been privileged to posses, has been pushed to a full go ahead. Failures of this project have been paramount since its fruition, ranging problems from a base material to such things as a base result, however a solution has been founded upon the rare d.n.a of a Navar Keelan Who's dna has been instrumental in the creation of this army of loyal clones. Noted that a previous attempt with a Keelan DNA had met with prior failure refer to such acts as the disastrous' __**Project Raven'. **__However Navar's dna has provided us with the opportunity to work on a pattern of constantly changing molecules, which has provided a base to give us a constant flux of patterns, solving the problems of rejected base material into the base host, which had been a rather consistent problem up until now. Provided further with a mix of Mr Roth's unusual potent serum, were are provided with the perfect combination of materials to make a cohesive dna source and when with provided with the idea of a base host, which had since been synthesized a long time ago based on the requirements summated by the committee of four. In conclusion, my prognosis is of a high and positive nature, having seen the first results of such an unusual mix of primordial ingredients it is an amazing thing to behold, however such side effects so far seem to be an unresponsive host, except in the case of Mr Roth with whom the clones seem to react too instinctively, further more the problem of unproductive vocal chords has yet to be resolved and I have not since been able to find an answer to such, as well as the unusual red eye pigmentations which seems to result somewhere in latent genetic anomalies present in Mr keelan's constantly changing blood , further observation upon the prototype's is recommended until behavioural inhibitors can be put in place. _

_Signed_

_Asst. lab tech five. Samuel masters, in direct forward-_

And the rest was ripped out. Katlin looked at me for a while. Simply staring at me, no more, and no less, and with no discernable theme to her staring either, I as well was unable to react, I stared at the paper of couple of time, always thinking that my name there was just me imagining it. However katlin's staring seemed to reinforce the fact that it was indeed my name upon that paper. This 'legion program' I gulped down some air, I wish I knew who the report was from. There were so many questions I had, it was always more questions, and I never had too many answers. I don't think it was possible to have to many answers. I've never heard of a case with somebody that had too many answers, but then again one mans mystery was always another man's answer was it not? It didn't matter. What was this legion program? Was I responsible for an army of clones? Even more puzzling was how I was responsible for an army of clones? None of this made any sense. I looked back at katlin who was still staring at me with a dumbfounded expression. She tried to mouth something like 'what' or something along such lines I simply shrugged at her, I probably had the same dumbfounded look she had. I got up and began to pace the room aggregately my suit was responding by randomly spiking blades and stabbing implements from my fist. The suit seemed to be feeding off my anger and anguish, naturally like it always had been, the mask was begging to be put back up, but I pushed the urge away, I turned to katlin and threw my hands into the air wildly

"What the hell does that mean?" she stood up and flung a new light shard into the wall because the other one was dissipating. She looked at me in an emphatic way and then slightly back to the document

"I don't know, but I think the legion program has something to do with the reavers" I looked at her as I pulled my hand to the bridge of my nose

"I think the legion project is the reaver's katlin" she looked at me and then it seemed like her mind kind of clicked over. She pulled the paper from where it was and stared at it a little more, and then back to me

"I think your right! But I don't get it, what does that mean? And what does it mean your blood was instrumental, just who the hell are you Navar!" I pulled a box from behind me and sat on it. Sinking myself into a bit of a slouch and looked at her

"You ever heard about the institute?" katlin looked at me a bit confused,

"Yeah, I was supposed to go but I wanted to stay with my mother this year, she was I dunno…a little depressed" I simply cocked my head sideways a little bit, I simply allowed her to continue. But it seemed she wanted me to talk…so I continued

" You heard about that whole incident with that guy…you know?" she nodded in a puzzled way

"Well, and you know how it was saved by like some kid?" she nodded, her expression becoming even more puzzled, I think the suspense was getting to her

"Well…I was that guy…I'm…blood…" she pointed her finger at me for a little bit and then said fairly loudly

"I KNEW IT! I mean well… I had a hunch, I mean all that stuff you could do…I got to admit I don't read the future press often but for a while there, you were all everyone was talking about, that's why your out here isn't it? Some sort of revenge thing?" I looked at her and scrunched my face in anger.

"No one deserves to the right to take life and exploit us just because were different, no one!" she looked at me and nodded

"Your right nav, your right, but hey your kind of famous hey" I rolled my eyes and got up from the seat

"But what does this all mean" katlin asked, I looked at my arms for a while, like searching through its jet black blades would give me some answers, they gave me none so I looked back at katlin

"I think it has something to do with what the professor told me a while ago" she looked at me and moved closer to me.

"What was that?" I paused for a while, there was something about me and my secrets, and I just kind of hated sharing them

"Well, its kind of like this…um my blood right… for a long time… sixteen years in fact, I thought I was dying, I spent most of it in a hospital, and then only recently weird events that I don't really wanna go into here, but well lets just say they awakened my abilities. It turns out I have billions of mutant glands, my blood itself consists of mutant glands, that are constantly absorbing new elements and abilities. So I think that using my blood as a base means that they have a substance that can constantly change and adapt to any host, making it the best possible base DNA you can hope for. And then even more so, I once heard from the Simkin, who was the kid that attacked the institute, anyway he told me that my dna was instrumental to there plans" katlin looked at me with a weird expression of empathy and confusion.

"Wow…that kind of explains a lot really, like maybe that's why I cant use my powers against you. But how did they get your DNA anyway?" I looked around the room. Again, for no reason. I stared at katlin as I moved closer to where she was

"I really have no idea" katlin got up and hugged me a little, which was completely welcome even thought It felt a little odd. When she stopped she walked over to the file and ripped it in half

"So I guess your like pretty strong hey?" I looked at my hands and then back at her

"Apparently I'm an estimated omega level" her jaw dropped and she looked like she wanted a seat

"What…is that possible?" I nodded to her silently and shrugged my shoulders

"Apparently…" she looked over to me and then made a three sign with her fingers

"And I thought a level three was strong, I'm a level three by the way." I looked at her and shrugged in a way to imply 'good for you' she broke the silence again

"Hey maybe that's why your body goes all crazy when you go near the reavers, coz there like your dna or something" I looked at my arms and nodded, it was probably right, I mean that's probably why my body wanted to kill them so badly, like they were inferior copies or something. But it still didn't help me really, would the knowledge of what they were really help me stop trying to attack them? No. Now I even wanted them dead. Katlin and I spent the rest of the walk back discussing what we had found in that report. Such as the implication this was. And who exactly was this mysterious Mr Roth, and what did he have to do with my DNA? There were so many questions, we discussed and agreed that we had to go out tomorrow night as well. But my last thoughts as I stared up into the blackness of the roof, was of my friends and my other life. It had been two days since I hadn't returned home, I didn't know how much longer I was going to be here either, until I found what I needed I guessed, but even so was there even an exit here? And how was everybody coping with my mysterious disappearance? It soothed me a little just to think of my friends, and my other life all the way out there.

CHAPTER 19

Fire and ice

Shane:

Lately, only lately had I seen the ghostly image of my mother appear to me, that beautiful pinnacle of human greatness; my mother. I've missed her ever since I can remember. Sometimes all I wanted was to show her the man I had become, would she be proud of me? Would she condone the decisions I had made in life?...of course she wouldn't be proud of me! I was weak now, everyone around me was almost the pinnacle of godsent power and here was mediocre Shane who was adorned with an insulting level three. Sure a three in any general circle was more than enough to be proud about. But not when you're in the presence and in the company of such people as 'Navar Keelan' and 'Adem mercan' and lets not forget fox boy "Kyle hoffricter". Navar Keelan… I had heard of the possibility of an omega mutant once when I was younger, but it was always in whispers and as about as possible as a boy finding and raising a dragon. And yet here walked one, a true 'omega mutant' within my own person graces. And yet I have not seen someone more worth the title, Navar was about the most selfless person I had ever met, perhaps it had something to do with spending sixteen years in a hospital, and one would imagine that such would give you a low value on your own life. But then he wore the world on his shoulders, he bore everyone's problems without a whisper or murmur of a complaint; perhaps he had the ability to absorb problems as well? The point is, when you're in the house with possibly the most powerful godsent alive, and next to you sits an empath…for god sakes an empath! And then behind you sits the first god sent to discover the possibility of influencing your mutant gene, well I suppose you get high expectations of yourself. I suppose I always had high expectations of myself… I had always been the best, I was the first person to discover my powers, I was the first person to truly master my abilities, and I suppose that would have been the first clue wouldn't it? If I had reached its mastery so quickly then it was not much of a power to grasp in the first place was it? And then that day, here I thought I was among this group, all of us Kyle, Navar, Adem even lindaleigh and nikki, we were the strongest, the toughest, the most powerful group of godsents the world had ever seen, we would all truly be famous. And then I got brought back to earth, humph brought back to earth by a simple yet strangely alluring nerd, who had told us all of our godsent levels. Levels that are intended to grade us upon our potential as a threat, but is generally used as a matter to socialize our little society into their sects, the higher the number the more important you are and the more revered you are as well. And then it happened I was scanned, and given a three. A three! I was the lowest besides angel, I mean Nikki. I never really liked calling her Nikki much, don't know why, even so her power level didn't seem to bother her much, and I suppose she never really expected much anyway. Everyone around me was getting, four's and fives, and heaven forbid one omega mutant. And it came to me, it came to Shane, who up to this point was so proud, and boy was I, I loved my powers, I think out of all us I was the one who immersed myself in my powers the most. They were a part of me, not just something I could do sometimes. They were….me. I think a little bit of me died when I got that number. But then the answer was simple, Shane was weak, Shane would always be weak. Rothkin would succeed where Shane had failed, rothkin would grow where Shane would fester. One day rothkin will be mightier than the sun, and all his enemies will burn…

I don't think you can really call it sleep when you kind of feel like your always half asleep anyway. I knew I had pushed myself past the point of human exhaustion, every muscle I had (even ones I didn't know I had until now) hurt. Actually they had moved past hurting, hurting was a lifetime ago. My bed was a haggard piece of messed up sheets and blankets. My room was dark, for some reason I was the only one who had chosen a bedroom on the first floor everyone else went upstairs, this didn't really bother me much. People were never really my biggest point; of course these people were my friends. All the way from goo boy to angel girl. But even so people were still never my biggest point; I had always felt more myself when I was coated in blue flame. Strange about that isn't it? I'm sure some psychologist would have a field day with that. But the need for care died with Shane. I opened my eyes it was that same vision I woke up with, the vision where instead of shadows and shapes it was a kind of thermal energy, this was something that only started happening recently, I had found that if I concentrate enough I could see the heat signatures of everything. It was strange this seemed to correlate with my new ability I had seemed to gain, well at least I thought I had, I had no real way to prove it. But all around me, when I focused enough I would gain subtle amounts of more power, and when I looked through my heat vision, the signatures would be dying as if the heat had been sucked out of them. Not to mention I had found some of the plants outside after I had finished training were covered with lights amount of frost, how could frost exist when I burned so intensely? Maybe I wasn't burning as strong as I thought. I got up and wiped the sweat off my forehead, a glimmer of a thought of maybe spending today resting popped into my brain. That would have been a Shane attitude, rothkin would have to look past his weakness. Walking seemed like I had cement blocks stuck to my feet, I passed that potted plant of that blue flamed rose I had given everyone, I always knew of them, they were constantly present within in the back of my conscious, they took very little effort to keep alight but I needed anything I could get I summoned the flame to my body, it surged through my hand and to where else I couldn't say, for a second my body felt anew, but then it probably hit my wall of exhaustion and pain and was obliterated. I rubbed my eyes and repeated my new mantra, exhaustion is just the minds weakness. I looked up to my wall where in a fit of rage I had scorched 'mightier than the sun' on the wall, it filled me with a small amount of new vigour and I stepped out into the cold hallway. My room was on the end of this hallway that led to an exit near the staircases and entrance lobby, there were four other doors that led to a bunch of unused rooms. I cracked my neck and walked out to the lobby, the big windows that were behind where the enormous Christmas tree used to be. The sky was grey and depressing. Mind you it had been that since nav had been gone. Two days, two days since Navar had been missing. On the first day no one knew what too feel, it seemed so odd, so strange, where would he go? Why would he leave? Kyle had pretty much disappeared into his room since, he was the last to see nav, when he was apparently 'bleeding out from over a hundred cuts' which Kyle has 'surmised' (his words not mine) that was due to a temporary paralysis of nav's powers. Of all of us angel seemed to take it the worst. Naturally of course she would, she was starting to resemble my appearance becoming gaunt and haggard, haggard, I love that word. On top of that apparently angel's sister was also missing, she seemed absolutely emotionally exhausted. I would comfort her, but I truly had my own problems as callous as it seemed. Lindaleigh, I called them that, because that's what they are, there one person, sure they do different things and move about individually, but in reality, they finished each others sentence, and eat each others food, and did the same things, always together, it was simple. They were the same person. They were pretty wrought from nav's disappearance but seemed to go through the motions by themselves. Adem, who was possibly the nicest person I had ever met. Simply went to staring over the harbour for long periods, somehow thinking this would bring Navar home. And Kyle had simply disappeared into his room, it was funny he was only just staring to come out his other mood and now he was straight back into it. Jackson Holmes had decided that he would contact the proper authorities and liaise with the police, as he informed us that Navar was a special case, Carissa seemed to be most worried about nav leaving, but more in the kind of way someone would be worried if there homework had just been deleted. I just shrugged Carissa off as that type of person, more involved in her work and such, to indulge herself in complicated feelings, despite that she still had some strange allure to me, besides her being the barer of the worst news I had heard since my mothers death, No that wasn't fair, I couldn't compare this to the death of my mother. My mother was a saint, she was godly. That other news was simply a problem of weakness that only Shane possessed.

I asked myself as I plodded my way to the kitchen how was it possible that one person could make such a significant change to a dynamic of a house by simply not being here. Would people care if I left? I don't think they would, I was insignificant in the scheme of things, in the overall scheme of things, well at least that was Shane was insignificant, Shane was small and weak and a fly on the windshield of life, I, rothkin will be a boulder, a boulder thrown into the windscreen of life. I walked into the eating room, my brain flashed me a view of heat signatures as it often did, I spied a pant near me losing most of its heat as I walked past it. It was the same as every morning, every early morning anyway I guessed it was probably around 6:30 am. I didn't matter how early I woke up, or if I sneaked in from the back way. Every morning Adem would be there before me, in his usual seat and his usual smile of content as he drew and wrote in that journal Navar and angel had given him for his Christmas present. That reminded me I pulled my right hand so I could see it clearly, and there upon my index finger it was, a shining metal ring, that was adorned with tiny flames on the side, I had only figured this curious metal out. It was once a shard of nav's mysterious artefact the lunatic Pandora that he had given myself and fox boy a piece of for Christmas, as soon as I held it the rock shard shimmered and melted into a strange metallic substance, that curiously seemed to harden and react to both my mental thoughts and the heat of my flames. I tried it again, just in case the last time was a hallucination due to my exhaustion. But it worked the same way, my head thought sword and from my grip grew a long silver sword that slightly snaked its way to its point where the shaft met a pointed end that hooked over slightly and then scythed its way to the top as well. The handle was porous and hard. And when I coated my hand in flame the sword drew on the heat and flame poured out from the top and along the sharp blade. It was curious how this seemingly liquid metal seemed to react to my thoughts, this was the sword I had pictured in my mind, the perfect sword, the perfect weapon to complement rothkin, and it just appeared when I wanted it to, and when I didn't the melted back into the ring. Adem looked over when the sword appeared and smiled

"That looks rather interesting Shane riddle" I pulled up a seat parallel to Adem and looked at him intensely

"I told you to call me rothkin!" Adem smiled and began to stare out of the window that looked over the left end of the harbour and the fringes of the city.

"My apologies….rothkin" I smiled weakly but I don't think he saw it. From the door behind came peter, he was wearing his usual suit with that weird spider symbol on the pocket. He looked me up and down worriedly. And then pushed a bowl of cereal under my nose, I had gotten to know peter quite well. I had learned he was of ethnic descent and his last name was parajah, peter parajah was born with a benign mutant gene. Meaning he had the gene, but it was simply giving him but extrasensory powers that were above human levels, but not exactly extraordinary. He had taken it upon himself to try and help me out of my depression, couldn't he see this was so much more then depression? It was simply a change; this was the cocoon of the rest of my life. I ate the cereal begrudgingly I knew I needed the energy, oh how I needed the energy. The others piled in some bit later; it was the same thing as yesterday. Everyone was still very haggard looking, Kyle wasn't even with everybody. Angel just spent the most of the time staring into her bowl of cereal, not eating it, but just staring. Lindaleigh weren't talking but were just eating their breakfast. Adem had already left and had gone, wherever it was he was going, and I was pretty much done now anyway. I walked out without saying goodbye to anyone, everyone was pretty much beyond pleasantries; mind you I had moved past pleasantries days ago

And so it begun again, I took a deep breath to try and get some sort of energy back, I tried to picture the cereal providing me with all the energy I needed. My vision flashed to show the heat signatures of the grass and the hedges surrounding this area. And I begun I pushed the flame out of my body, it was thin and sporadic, I guess I was just getting to tired to try any harder. And slowly my bright blue flame began to darken. I flashed into my heat vision the surrounding areas heat was fading, was my flames colour change somehow linked to the heat being drained from the fauna around me. I pushed further I was staring to gain more energy. My flames were almost black now; the hedges were almost covered in frost. The ground around me was freezing, it was annoying me. How could it be freezing up when I was burning so hot? I pushed harder, the hardest I'd ever pushed. I was beginning to float not by choice I guess I was just pushing that far. My body burst over its final plateau and I exploded in black flame I roared harder and my flames responded to my rage and burnt well, I was burning black. And finally, finally it dawned on me! I wasn't burnt cold, I was drawing heat from things, and I had pushed my body so far, so hard that it needed to draw things from other sources. I cracked my neck and floated to the ground, all around me was icicles of frozen hedges. I willed my sword and black flame plumed out of its blade. Finally Rothkin was complete, rothkin the black flame. I just stayed there burning black and holding my sword as I soaked in the totality of what was happening. Until a voice broke my meditation

"Quite impressive…!" I turned around, it was Carissa…I kept my flames alight, I always felt more comfortable when I was alight with flame. She looked me up and down and payed particular attention to my new flame colour and the sword. She rubbed her shoulders, obviously it was cold, not that I would of known. I swinged my hand and created a ring of flame around Carissa and I so she wouldn't be cold anymore she smiled at me and then looked to her watch and then looked shocked, she stared at it for quite a while. Until she looked at me in utter shock

"This isn't possible" I looked at her; I wasn't quite sure how much my expressions came across in a flame suit, even more so if I was burning black.

"What isn't?" she stared at me. For a while, my black flames were starting to fade back to blue, I guessed I wasn't drawing on outside heat energy anymore. She stared at me and smiled and put her hand on her hip and cocked her head. She was wearing a smart skirt and woman's blazer, she always dressed way older than she really was

"Can I just say firstly that I always found your…character admirable, you were…according to records one of the top five flame related godsents…" I cocked my head and withdrew my flame, her comment left me a bit full of confidence, confidence enough that I didn't need my flame suit. I simply raised an eyebrow at her so she could continue, she looked towards the house and then back to me and muttered out loud (but not exactly to me)

"I guess this means that Kyle character was right…" I looked at her a little annoyed, this wasn't time for Kyle, this was about me, and this was the time for rothkin. She stared at me for a little bit, obviously weighing the complications of the statement she was about to make, she seemed like the kind of person that did that, with pretty much everything she was going to say

"Well…it's just my readings…of you…they've changed…you've gone from a level three…from well my readings are erratic but its reading about a four point five. That means that if my readings are right, which I have my doubts about. Well Shane that makes you the strongest fire based godsent on the planet at this point, it also means you have managed to influence your mutant gene at a far faster rate than even Kyle was able too, I just well…congratulations…I'm impressed" she walked off right after that, not giving me at any inkling to why she came to see me in the first time. And for the first time in a while I smiled. In the back of my heart I was still sunk, I missed Navar, I wished he was here to see this, but it was just more confusing because no one had any idea where he was, he could have been killed for all we know, but from the parted clouds shone a ray of light that both strengthened and warmed me, and I smiled. One day I will be mightier than the sun…

CHAPTER 20

Freezing over

I could never get any sleep in this place, hell I didn't even know what this place was. Of course I have my hunches, its entrance was a nightclub called 'the organization' and everywhere was godsents, and not just your normal sort of god sents, every one of them seemed to be bitter and depressed or egomaniacs bent on proving there worth to the world. And then there was the odd reaper, his generals and his reavers, of all these things these are what confused me the most. What was truly the motivation and the ultimate goal of this 'reaper' he seemed to be hell bent of shaping a future where the 'ultimate society' would rule, he seemed to think us godsents were worthy of ruling over the diminutive humans. What was worse was that this man seemed to be scaringly charismatic, even I was starting to lean towards his cause, there was something about this man, something scarily admirable, and then there was his 'generals' his silent soldiers that always stood behind him upon that black stage, always quiet and observing us. And this whole thing, this whole exercise was so the privileged few of us would get to join the generals of the reaper, and judging by the reaction of the other people around me, this seemed to be a rather prestigious prize. And then even worse were these 'reavers' there seemed to be an unending supply of these red eyed cloaked fiends, all paused to follow the reapers smallest whim silently and obediently, what was worse, what was totally and completely shocking was that somehow, these creatures, these fiends, these red eyed demons, were somehow made from my blood, how the hell was this possible? Where did they get some of my blood, and what exactly was I going to do about it? My entire body pursed with so much anger every time I saw one it was almost beyond me to control the urge to rip them apart, katlin and I had hypothesized that the reason was my body, on a primitive level saw their creation, evidently from my blood as a fake impostor of inferior quality and must be destroyed. Everything I read from that mysterious report flashed through my head as I tossed and turned in my bed. Who was this Mr Roth? What was project raven? What was the result of the previously failed attempt using Keelan DNA? I needed more answers, I always needed more answers, why the hell was my life so confusing? No one ever helped me along, I never had some divine wisdom that said, 'you must travel along this path to achieve your goals' I never had anything like that, hell I didn't even know what I was doing here anyway, I knew this place would help me find answers, but did I really need those answers? I think I was starting to lose some of my resolve in my goals, I mean how important was it really for me to destroy the organization, hell did they even exist or was it only the delusions of a child hell bent on revenge? I didn't even know for a hundred percent they that existed, and if they did I didn't even really know what they responsible for, and yet here I was, one person with a vaunted vendetta against the evil organization that took a massive group of superheroes to take down last time. Who am I to think that I could even achieve this? Who was I against a whole corporation of people working their best to keep themselves a secret? I missed my friends; I missed my life and my mum. It had been two days since I hadn't come home, I tried to picture their faces and what they would all be doing, would they had known id even gone? If they did, would I be missed? Were they looking for me right now? Were there hundreds of authorities scouring Sydney for me as I lay here? I had no idea, because I was trapped in this underground castle, I didn't even know if I was a prisoner here, I think everybody else here simply didn't want to leave, but I hadn't seen an exit yet. The door katlin and I entered through had a large wooden sleeper over it, and it almost looked like the doors had been fused together, of course its nothing I couldn't handle, but for some reason my body wouldn't let me leave, it didn't want to be torn from this place like some invisible force was keeping it here.

I got up and lent against the side of my bed, there was no point trying to sleep, it was too plagued with problems and feelings and responsibilities that it couldn't be called sleep anymore. I pulled my hands up to my eyes and rubbed the sleep away. I didn't know what time it was because there were no windows in this dorm. Katlin was also awake and noticed me stirring. She came over to me.

"You ok nav?" I shrugged my shoulders at her and continued to stare at the ground. I don't think I was ok; it was like my life was freezing over, and all my problems were becoming ice spikes through my head. I was tearing apart over myself and I couldn't do anything to stop it. Katlin just sat there rubbing my back for a while. I let her, it felt comforting and I really needed it. In a little while the rest of the people woke up. And were running around the room eating the breakfast that got delivered in trolleys outside our dorms and busying themselves with there usual things they do when you wake up. I got up and began to pace the room. I needed to do something, anything I was getting stir crazy here! I was starting to feel trapped, hell I am trapped! I'm a prisoner in this stupid place! My body was starting to pulse with anger, again with anger! It was revelling in it, licking it up immersing myself in its anger, I threw it out of my mind I was sick of this shadow as well, I hated it, I despised it, it was a revolting sinister part of me and I was sick of its influence. My hands were starting to grow into claws, my skin was starting to turn black, and I couldn't control it my blood itself was trying to make me condone to its demands. Something behind me distracted me from my transformation, it was a ghostly image of the reaper, he was wearing a smart black cloak with high a high colour and a low v-neck that had a silver shirt underneath, his hair while seemingly translucent shined its brilliant silver, the ghostly image stared at me for what seemed like a lifetime, his eyes boring into me. I tried to straighten myself up; I didn't want to show him my weaknesses. The reaper smiled his handsome white teeth and spread his arms welcomely his voice beckoned around the room

"I trust breakfast was good my children? And now today you will all have the privilege of witnesses a display of talents of the children of the synthesized genes, if you will now follow my reavers your will be escorted to the battle grounds" my stomach lurched and I knew the reavers were near me. katlin who was wearing a white singlet and some stolen pair of jeans she had stolen from the briefcase of one of the kids in the other dorms who hadn't finished past the first test, came over to me, she like I knew that the reavers were made of my blood, or at least I gathered some sort of false, impostor synthesized version of my blood. I guess now was the time I would find out if this knowledge would help me control myself. The door flew open, and the large cloaked figures walked through the room and posed themselves into rows, in there usual silent and aimless way that they did. I stared at them, for the first time I tried to stare into them, I tried to sense who they were. They had no pulse; hell I don't think they had blood. I didn't know what they were, but I don't think they were human, everyone of there eyes bore into me I clutched my stomach and held my impulses to kill them at bay, only just nearly. Katlin offered me a hand as we made our way towards the main hall

The hall was adorned with an amazing amount of bustling people, all whom were talking amongst themselves. Apparently this event was one to be rather spectacular and not to mention rare, I really didn't know what to expect, I didn't even really know what I was watching. Of course I've had experiences with synthesized glands, as far as I know I had dealt with the first gland ever. That gland was in Simkin, and the gland itself had transformed Simkin into some sort of evil spectre, the gland itself was the one that somehow told him he could steal powers. So needless to say I really didn't know what to expect, would all these poor people, who had once been human, as to say not godsents. Were they all going to turn into evil spectres? Was the genes themselves evil? Or was it the person itself? The Simkin was evil, maybe the gland was simply acting upon it. Nevertheless it felt good to be away from the fighting. It was merciless pitting a bunch of godsents against each other, all for some deluded sense of glory of joining some elite group called the generals, it seemed absurd that all these people would fight so hard for such a vaunted goal. And yet they did, they all fought so hard, some didn't even know why they fought that hard, even I didn't know why the pit of my gut wanted to fight so hard, somehow my shadow, the shadow inside me, the thing that had its tendrils inside my mind, the thing that fought so hard for control over my fee will wanted this goal more than anything else, it was ready to fight harder than anything it had fought for before, and I had no idea why.

The crowd had gathered and settled. Around me sat Katlin, Elijah, Darius and Hiro. And the rest of the grandstand was filled with the rest of us, of course there was only about ten of us left anyway, I spied Gun looking as cocky as possible, with his arm around two blonde girls. I rolled my eyes and focused on the hall. There were at least thirty tired looking teenagers standing in a make shift circle, above the stage where they always were, were the generals. I tried to get a view of sin, even from up here and see if there was somehow, someway I could figure out why he or even it seemed so familiar to me. I got nothing. I heard a loud click that seemed to emulate through the whole room and the small circle of black mist rose from the centre of the stage, the mist rose up and form the shape of a man, the man was the reaper, it didn't really faze me, I had seen theatrics like this before, hell I could turn my body into living shadow. The reaper looked back and smiled at his generals and then walked forward, his black cloak and long silver hair flowing behind him. He clapped and walked into the make-shift circle and spiralled around in a circle.

"Ahh…today can you smell it children?" he paused for a while, for what I guessed was simply dramatic affect, I guessed simply coz no one seemed to reply, I don't think it was the kind of question that needed a reply, the man continued

" Today, you privileged few will witness a momentous event in history, no longer will pitiful humans have to drag along by our illustrious wakes, no they too, those not ignorant enough to see that we are the future, can lap at our power, they too can posses power beyond that of stagnant human potential, why they will never be as powerful as us, they can contend. And so today these beautiful children have chosen this path, chosen the path of knowledge and acceptance that they are of a dying breed, they have chosen to step into the future anew. And we will witness this step, as these people….right here, will battle to have a part of our prestigious clan of generals, and they can show the population, the masses, that the their step in this…our future is an easy choice to make, and so without further ado. Witness the might of the future humans!" he wisped away and appeared back on stage in a puff of black mist, not one of the generals seemingly fazed by his teleportation. And so the battle started, it was hard to see what was going on because there were so many people, one kid who appeared to be of negro background was bouncing around and landing on people like his body was springs. Another kid who had long blonde hair and almost looked like a girl was leaping around on stretched legs. At one point there was a kid creating a wide arc around him with a flamethrower, I laughed to myself, I would like to see him try and face Shane, no flame powered person I had ever seen seemed to be anywhere near his control of flame, and yet he only got a three in the mutant level, I had seen how that had hurt him so much, I wondered how he was doing now, was he taking my not being there badly? But I had little time to debate this because katlin was apparently talking to me

" Its weird, I can feel there energies, but its like…I dunno different… like diminished in comparison to normal godsents" I spied darius talking to Elijah.

"I heard they call them mutants, like were godsents because our powers are natural you know, but well…there the mutants" I shrugged my shoulders at katlin and focused back on the battle, mutants really was a better name for them. The battle was thinning now, the two guys I had spied before were already down. There was one guy, who was running around in an impressive amount of speed, it was nothing compared to Kyle though. There was another one who had grown his arms in what looked like bone spikes. But the real leader of the battle was a silver haired girl, well it wasn't exactly silver, it was white with a tinge of blue, as if her Hair was frozen or something, her character hinted more at the powers of ice because icy mist seemed to blow out of her mouth with every breath. I still haven't been able to see who it was because the girl had her back to me and was fighting three men in front of her. Mist grew around one guy's chest and suddenly a spike of ice speared straight through his shoulder, the boy screamed in pain. The girl then drew her hands up, as if summoning something. As if responding to her will water began to build around her hands, as if summoning the moisture out of the air and when she thought she had enough water (it was about the size of a soccer ball) she through the ball at the other man, who was a rather masculine looking specimen, the water splashed over his chest and then with the flick of her fingers, the water hardened and speared through the muscle-bound man. The girl was most defiantly efficient, if not brutal. Others began to rush at her, not just men but girls now too. The silver haired girl drew the water from the musclebound man and threw it to the floor in the direction of the advancing crowd. Five or so people slipped onto there backs meeting with shads of ice upon there fall. There were about five people left now. The girl covered one of her hands in a light amount of water and it hardened into a sharp brutal looking ice-like glove. This met with a girl jumping to the silver-haired girl's side now there were only three left, the man who appeared to be made of wood; and one guy who seemed to be able to shoot lasers from his eyes. The silver haired girl clicked her fingers and the both of them met with ice shards though there torso, she was the only one left, in a sea of blue orbs around the healing bodies, this girl was the only one left. I had to admit she was impressive, I didn't exactly agree with her methods, they were brutal and excessively violent, but the girl was powerful, and for a mutant, I liked that way of describing them, mutants. She was more powerful and masterful then many I had seen before. I looked over to katlin who seemed to be similarly impressed. The girl turned around to scowl at the crowd, I nearly fell off my seat, and the girl was Jade. This was where jade has run off too? This is where jade escaped too, so she could be a mutant just like her sister? I guess it made sense, she did seem resentful of her sisters powers, thought her parents were always more proud of Nikki than her. It hardly looked like jade though, her hair was that weird white bluey tinge, and her eyes seemed to share the same scary colour. Jade smiled and made the water sprinkle into little amounts of snow in celebration. I couldn't believe it! It just seemed so impossible. I wanted to go straight down there and shake jade out of her idiocy, what the hell was she doing anyway? I must have been showing some sort of scene because katlin shook me on the shoulder

"Nav what, is it another reaver? I don't see any?" I looked at her, I imagine my face must have been as white as a ghost. She looked at me and waited for an answer, I replied still gasping in disbelief

"I…I um, know that girl" katlin didn't seem to grasp the impact it had made on me

"Yeah so…I know Gunter…doesn't really make much of a difference" I stared at jade some more, have I overacted again? No of course not, jade was about to undergo something, something I was pretty sure was evil, of course there had to be evil, this whole damn thing was evil!

"Ladies and gentlemen…the winner!" the reaper slinked down with a grin wide enough to see even in the grandstand. Reavers were beginning to pile in and pick up all the sorted mangled bodies, and take them somewhere, I had really no idea where. The reaper continued

"And did I not tell you that we were in an impressive display, witness the power of future technology! And witness the power of-"he had made it to jade he leant down a little in a fake show of warmth and smiled

"What shall we call you now? Shed your human name, you are one of us now and it deserves a new name…something that personifies your new identity…how about it young one any ideas?" Jade stared up into the crowd and looked brought her hands up to her face, as far as I could tell, she seemed to be completely in love with her powers, kind of like Shane. she stared at the crowd with a new resolve, I swear she was even looking at me and then spoke in a weird husky, more...menacing version of her voice

"Frost…" the reaper and grabbed her hand and held it in the air. He smiled warmly and stared at the crowd with his piecing eyes

"Ladies and gentlemen…your newest general…frost!" Everyone around me clapped everyone but me and katlin. I looked down at jade, I was still flummoxed at her decision, and it seemed so rash. So completely morbid. The reaper turned around and gestured to his generals

"Cancer, Pestilence, Sin, and Crow come and take your newest member and help her become ordained into the group" jade smiled, she seemed utterly pleased with herself. The generals came over to her begrudgingly. Crow acting like she didn't exist, and sin pretty much doing what he did, which was look like he didn't even exist, like he was I don't know, not even there. But somehow even now, he was familiar to me, I couldn't shake it, what about this guy was familiar? Argh it was so annoying!

" And that ladies and gentlemen…is it! Tomorrow a champion among you godsents will be crowned! Tomorrow one of you here will get to taste ultimate victory, and in occasion of this, I had organized a special feast to be delivered to your dorms, if you will now file out and follow the reavers, children enjoy your last supper, tomorrow one of you will be champion!" it was the same routine, I was clutching at myself trying to get a hold of my emotions whilst I made my way too the dorm.

It was all too much, everything was all too much. I couldn't grasp it, jade had come to this evil place. And not only that she was the next general. As far as I knew the generals were here to create a new future, it sounded like a nice way to say, murder anyone that gets in our way. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep, the rest of the people in our dorm feasted on the banquet that was delivered to our dorm, I lost the will to eat as soon as a reaver entered the room, his red eyes on me the whole time. I didn't care that everybody else was eating, talking, and having fun. I missed my friends, I wanted to get out of the place, but now I knew I needed to bring jade with me. I couldn't leave this place with the answers I needed. And without jade, jade needed to see the errors of her ways, she couldn't be here, she couldn't be evil, just because of some hell bent delusion of being better than her sister, least that's what I thought she was trying to do. After a while, when there was just the dim light of a couple of candles up ahead, the room had quieted. Hiro had fell asleep, darius was playing on some sort of game station and Elijah was bouncing some sort of white ball that seemed to burn the air itself, I guessed this was the manifestation of his poison, a gluey like substance. It didn't seem to affect him at all though. Then suddenly katlin was at the end of my bed, she picked up my hand and stroked it

"Are you ok Navar, you seem really bummed, is it about that girl?" I sat up a little bit, her back was pressed against the front of my chest, I could feel her heart beat hammering in her chest, I looked to the ragged sheets of my bed and said weakly

"Kind of, but its not just that, its everything!" she turned around so her face was looking straight into mine, she seemed to choose her words carefully, her heart was speeding up rapidly

"Did…you…like her?" like frost? I almost laughed, I mean jade was good looking, but I dunno I guess she was just my sister. Then from out of nowhere. Katlin wrapped her arms around me, she felt warm and gentle.

"…good" from out of nowhere our lips locked. It was that same feeling of two bodies urging to become one, but it wasn't me, no it was my shadow, it was pulsing through me urges of lust and uncontrollable urges. My body urged me to sink into them, they were impossible to fight. She pushed me over to my bed. My body, my shadow reached into her more. I felt the spine on her back, it was warm and perfect and it quivered to my touch. My hands moved down her back. Katlin kissed back harder and my shadow was revelling in the lust of it all. NO! This was all wrong, I didn't think of katlin like this, it was this stupid shadow, this fucking shadow of my emotions that seemed to rule my every second guess. I concentrated as hard as I could, the urge was dying, and slowly dying and finally I had control. I pushed katlin off as gently as I could, my every urge wanted to reach out and grab her, and rip off her clothes. I took a deep breath

"I'm…sorry…really…sorry…I, have a girlfriend" katlin pulled back and straightened herself up, her face. Was appalled she was speechless and shocked. She brought her hand up to her mouth and looked at me for a little bit

"But…?" I shook my head weakly she got up and looked at me, she almost seemed hysterical

"I…I have to go…" she ran out of the room, It took me a while to realise what the hell was going on. I didn't get it. I ran out of the door I couldn't see her. She seemed to be gone to my left some reavers were approaching. And to my left was nothing but darkness, damn her being undetectable! I ran into the darkness avoiding the reavers, I needed to find her, we couldn't leave it like this. I needed her here, I don't think I could handle this place without her, I don't think I could handle this place now! I couldn't find her; I ran everywhere I could while still avoiding reavers, and obviously she wouldn't get past them either. Eventually I made it to the crossroads I had been before, something in me made me think about following the middle path. I don't know what it was, but it did. I ran down there as fast as I could until I got about half way. She was gone, I wouldn't find her now, not here in the dark, and with katlin it was impossible. And then up ahead, there was a light on. It seemed to belay a rather large room; something drew me to this room. Something and so I walked on. Everything was going wrong; my life was freezing over if that made any sense. I just hoped my friends were doing better.

CHAPTER 21

Requiem

Kyle:

Time, time, time. Time is, time does, and time exists. I've always been super sensitive to the workings of time, I don't know why, and I could never really tell you why, sure I could tell you the answer to some of the most complicated maths problems you had ever heard, sure I could give you the random mathematical equation for the influencing of ones genetic 'mutant gene'. But to explain some of the wonderments and mysteries of my own life. Well that's exactly what they are, mysteries. Life itself is a mystery; I think I had come to accept that lately. My life had always been mundane, not bad, and not good. Mundane. I was destined to fade into obscurity with the rest of the world. I didn't want to be nothing, I wanted to be something. Someone, going somewhere. Until that day, that day, a knock at my door, and in boomed a man, who upon first glance you would consider to be something of a bikie, or a caveman. Then the man talks and he talks with distinction and sophistication. His suit itself belays a feeling of wealth and gentleness. And then the news, the news the man purveys. The news that I am special, part of a society, a society of genetically superior people, no not superior, different. And imagine my surprise, my adulation at this. I had been rescued from my mundane life, and thrust into a new, final frontier. And so it began, the dreams, the daydreams of him. My hero, my aspiration. The kitsune; a Japanese folk lore of a malevolent spirit, said to control nature, to be fast and said to grow a tail every thousand years. I dreamed, and dreamed about this spirit, this identity. And then one day something began to happen, my dreams seemed more real. And then it happened, that day when my mind seemed to connect to the grass itself. and I figured it out, somehow, somehow I couldn't explain it at the time, but somehow my mutant gene had responded to my dreams and desires, and of course it didn't made sense, when your brain works like mine not much does. But it had happened, and of course no one believed me, but I had traversed down a path no one before me, so much for a life of the mundane… and now…this. Something was different with me, I was traversing so fast. It was like I was skipping years in experience, but this is exactly what I wanted, I have gone from being able to control blades of grass from well this. On the roof existed a forest, my own forest, of my own doing, I had mental contact with every blade of grass, every trunk of the trees as they wavered in the wind. And then, the weather, well not the weather in its entirety, but the existential parts, like lightning for instance. I could feel it, sense when it was coming. And as I learnt since, manipulate it. Well, slightly It still had to be thundering for instance, and that was my biggest guess to as why my staff, ah my precious staff, unto which I had bestowed my secrets and vented my hidden anger. It glowed a purple luminesce which emanated around my room, well as much as you could call this a room, it was more like a rainforest. Plants and trees grew where they should not have, and one large tree stretched through the roof itself, finding its top somewhere above the roof on this floor.

Two days, two days since Navar had not returned, and in these days, these two days my power had grown so expediential that it was almost scary, was it anger? Was it hopelessness? Or was it something far more sinister which was stirring dormant powers inside of me? I had a hunch of it being some combination of all three. I couldn't stand the eyes and the questions of everyone else, I had been the last one to see Navar, and I had been the last one to see his smile. I had been the last to see him lacerated all over his body in an instant; from what I hypothesize was a temporary paralysis of his abilities. Navar, Navar Keelan. A.K.A 'blood' the world's first omega level mutant, I did a research upon this level omega. It was simply, the incalculable, Navar had the power to absorb any known element in the world, what was once his weakness, could just as soon become his strength. Of, course everyone has weakness's even Navar. Perhaps it was simply his own nature; he was generally a selfless soul, always divided by his own second guessing and his own underestimation of himself. It didn't matter, there was nothing I could do. I think that's what I hated the most about all of this 'this' being this entire holiday, vacation; whatever you wanted to call it. Was that, Sydney was seemingly under siege, under siege of an apparently unprecedented rise in crime and vandalism, which while still horrible, was tolerable. But then, from our own society, from this mysterious new society I had been thrust into, the society of us godsents. Children all over Sydney mysteriously go missing. And then, just two days ago, it all seemed to step up a notch. Over a hundred, teenagers, it was always teenagers that had gone missing. No one else but me seemed to link this with Navar's disappearance as well, but I knew better. There was too much of a coincidence. Navar was a godsent, possibly the strongest ever, but he was still a godsent, and he was a teenager. He fit the mould. And there was nothing I could do about it. I could run faster than most things on this planet, I could control any form of nature. And my stick, at this point, with its fragments of the lunatic Pandora, now contained captured lightning, that almost sounded like a contradiction. Capturing lightning, was it still lightning if it was captured, or was it just energy? It didn't matter! The point was I was stuck, rotting, festering away with all this power, I could change the world, I could end world hunger, but as soon as I stepped beyond the boundary of this mansion, I ceased to be the kitsune, a level five (or four if you listen to Carissa) godsent, and the first boy to ever influence his gene. Sure one day I will be on the council with such great minds as horatio gast and Jackson Holmes, I had no doubt about that. But intelligence was one thing, you couldn't really fight a foe with intelligence well not physically anyway. It fucking sucked! I needed to get out and do something, but I was trapped, in this room. This room which looked more like a jungle. I suppose I should face them, it was about time to face them, face them all, face their questions, and their eyes, and their suspicious. I couldn't wallow around in my own self pity for the rest of my life. I walked out of my room, my stick grasped to my back with vines across my chest, if I was going anywhere I was going with my stick. It was my safety device, kind of like a kid with a blankie, I don't know, something about it made me feel safe. I prodded my way along the hallway, I was anxious. I walked down the steps, feeling my hand along the wooden handrail, feeling every pore of the dead wood. In a flicker of my mind I could make this wood spike out, or grow trees. I passed the lobby with its large pointed windows that stared out into the harbour and the cityscape beyond. I didn't know what time it was, I guessed about midday. The sky was still cloudy and overcast, I sensed rain soon. But not yet. My stick pulsed some more purple light. And I was again energized; it had something to do with my stick, this whole new power thing. I hypothesized anyway. I pulled my stick to my front and grasped it in both my hands. The wood felt smooth, I ran my fingers over its indentations, things I had carved into it. I loved this stick; it was now that I decided to name it, for what it was. This stick was my requiem, this stick IS requiem. I felt a presence behind me and I threw my stick up into the air, it linked itself back to my back. It was Shane, he looked happy, happier than he had been for a while, and he looked more…more. He didn't look as gaunt as he recently had, something happened to him, something made him more distinguished, something sparkled in my eyes, it was a ring, a ring around his finger that shined like the odd metallic substance his shard of the lunatic Pandora. This whole lunatic Pandora business was a mysterious one. I had seen this in the hands of Navar reawaken the dead, and in my hands it has turned into what I can only assume is some sort of lightning absorbing material, it would be interesting to test what other energy It could absorb, but now was not the time. to cement myself to this idea, as I walked towards the eating room a passed a copy of 'the future press' the mysterious paper somehow delivered to only us godsents, or godsents affiliated familles. Those sworn to keep the secret alive. If someone unrelated was to fund such, they would see a blank page, it apparently something to do with the ink. I walked into the eating room, it was just as I expected. Everyone looking sombre and depressed. Nikki looked the worst; she looked almost like a different person. Her hair was stringy and un-immaculate. Her eyes belayed a sense of complete dread. I sat down next to them. Shane smiled to me and leant forward a little, his oddly sharp two teeth showing through

"Hey Kyle…nice to see you out in the world of the living" I smiled weakly, Shane seem to be under some sort of new guise of confidence and caring, least I thought it was a guise, I guess in my mood, everything good seemed a little fake.

"Hey Shane…" I scuffed my hair as I noticed something. Food. That's what I had forgot, food! As soon as I saw it my stomach began to remind me that it was still there, I felt a little stupid that I forgotten to eat, but what are you going to do? Shane looked at me and smiled again

"Its Rothkin, remember?" I rolled my eyes and cracked my neck after I had finished eating an apple

"Yeah of course…" I replied, this whole, rothkin/Shane arc was rather confusing. No one said anything, we all just sat there and ate. How is it possible that one person can make such a difference?

Night time. The day had creped along slowly, they always creped along slowly. I had a suspicion, I didn't weigh much reality on it, but a suspicion none the less. That perhaps I wasn't the fast one. Perhaps the world just moved slowly around me. But that was a fairly maddening sort of thought, the kinda of mantra like "I'm the sane one...everyone else is insane!" I pushed it out of my mind, I didn't need pointless vaunted theories running through my head. The moon shined from above, its radiant light casting a mysterious ominous feel, the rain had turned to a low forming mist that swirled around the roof of this house. Of course this was no normal house, well at least the roof anyway. I stabbed the stick into the hard ground somewhere near the pool. And instantly, vines, grass, ferns rushed out. In about a minute, this once white rooftop with minimal plant life, had transformed to a think, functioning rainforest. I smiled to myself. Mundane indeed. I felt the mist swirl around every leaf, every follicle of grass and I felt the cold wind wrap itself around the taller trees. It was both a wonderful and odd experience. Imagine being able to sense over a million things at once, the human brain wasn't able to process such things, well maybe if we used more percentage of the brain. I had another theory, another hypothesis. It made sense, questions were all that I really had now anyway. The theory was that this could be how such power within individuals was possible, well individuals such as myself, godsents that is, I guessed that it was perhaps due to a higher level of brain capacity, perhaps the human genome itself always had the potential for wondrous and amazing powers, it made sense really, look back into the future, of ordinary people doing amazing things, doing things beyond that of rational physics. Perhaps the human could always wield flame, but just somewhere along the way we forgot how too. And now. Only now, are humans beginning to remember we posses such abilities. What other creature other than the human posses such…potential for unlimited potential, that's an odd sentence really 'the potential for unlimited potential' but I guess, to me it makes perfect sense. But even on the other end of it, in a rational way, the human body would simply need more brain capacity to grasp the idea of wielding and controlling these powers. I pulled myself into a meditative state, and let vines swoop past me and under me. And crawl up into the sky. I thrust my hand as fast as I could, admit tingly I had almost forgotten about my previous powers, those of speed. The power, I suppose god; had bestowed upon me, but then hadn't god simply bestowed upon me the knowledge of influencing ones gene? I smiled to myself; god was simply an illogical answer to a complicated equation. And then something, I'm not sure what I couldn't sense anything, but something, something was here, I could not see it, nor feel it. But there was a gap, a gap where a presence should be, I felt I compressing my grass, pushing past my leaves, there was something here alright. I got up and went to reach for my staff, no, not yet. I pushed on, I felt naked without requiem, but I was already in my own requiem anyway, I was surrounded by requiem, in a requiem. (Another strange sentence) it was further, near the entrance to this roof. I pushed past two thick trees that were blocking my views. My heart was beginning to beat in anticipation. I turned left, and past a large tree that twisted and cavorted its way reaching to the heavens beyond. Forward beyond two cascading ferns. Just a little more now; I pushed on. Finally I parted the last trees that blocked my view. I couldn't believe it, I didn't believe it, I thought it a make up of my madness, perhaps more lunatic Pandora madness; didn't the name itself prevail madness? But no, the vision noticed me, she tweaked her fingers and to my surprise a tiny dagger of light appeared from it. I stepped back a couple of steps I was still totally entranced. The girl's heart didn't seem in it. The light dagger disappeared into nothingness and her head flopped back to the floor. Her mascara had ran, she looked like she was crying, I sat next to her, I made no intention to talk to her, I didn't care. Just simply staring at this beautiful girl was enough for me.

CHAPTER 22

From yesterday

The light, THAT light. It was a large door, one of those large two door ones. Above the door frame was a ventilation shaft, or some sort of shaft, it all seemed a little TOO coincidental. I looked back, down the long path, all I could see was darkness and the high arches of the buildings. I tried to will katlin back; she would know what to do. I tried to weigh my options, I could already hear the whir and sounds of their voices already, If I concentrated, just a little, I would be able to hear them perfectly, but then it left me wide open for being caught eavesdropping, and something told me I needed to be in there, I stretched a tentacle from my back and pulled out the grate, it was funny how there was a ventilation system in such an old looking place, kind of a mix and match of curious technology. I leaped into the shaft with a minimal amount of ease, so much so that I even surprised myself a little bit. It was big enough for me to crawl through. I managed to make as little noise as possible by cushioning myself with tentacles, I worked my way up a little further, and it was getting increasingly hard not to feel counterphobic. Of course I'd been in Mri machines before, but that was different, hell it was as about as different as you could get. Here I was crawling through something I half guessed was a ventilation shaft, in a place I half guessed was the organization, or had something to do with the organization. I was always half guessing things, my whole life up into this point had been a half guess. Light was seeping out in the distance, just how far away were these people? Who upon first glance had just been right near the door, maybe that's why I couldn't really hear anybody. Finally I made it to a grate, I couldn't see anybody through it, but their voices were meandering and vibrating around my ventilation shaft, making it sound like I was in the room itself. A deeper voice seemed to be leading the conversation, it was the kind of voice that you knew, by just hearing it that it had a lot of power and sway behind it, the kind of man that could condemn a city to death with a simple 'yes'. I tried to make myself as invisible as possible and listened on;

"And what of project raven?" the powerful voice asked, there were some shuffling of paper and then a raspy voice spoke, that seemed powerful, but in awe of the other voice

"It is still…in recession, all signs of progress are dull and unresponsive.

"Any change upon adding of the virus?" the man paused for a while, I guessed he was checking his notes, what exactly was this virus? But I had heard of project raven before, it was mentioned in the sheet about the legion program. The other man answered

"None at this point, but I think Keelan is going to become a problem" the powerful mans voice hmm'd for a while. I had only heard two voices but I was sure there more than that in the room, I could see more then two shapes through the grate, they all seemed distinguished and well dressed from what I could see.

"Mr Roth, how goes progress on your front?" the powerful man asked. I recoiled a little in my brain. Mr Roth, this man; whoever he was, had something to do with me, something to do with the creation of the reavers, I wished I could see who it was; thought of storming into the place, tentacles flailing and demanding they all answer my questions or face my wrath. Stupid shadow. I pushed it out of my mind, this time it hurt, It actually began to hurt to deny these mysterious urges that were deep within me. it didn't matter I needed to focus on the conversation

"Quite well Master Furion" the voice that spoke, the man I wanted to know who it was, it was the reaper, and the reaper was the mysterious Mr Roth. But what could he possibly have to do with me, and the reavers whom so faithfully follow his lead

"Well… detail it then man, your not here for pleasantries sephillius!" so the powerful man was a Mr. furion, didn't really change much other than me being able to put a name to a voice, but I guess even that was a good thing. I heard a tapping of someone's fingers, I guessed it was the reapers, or sephillius, or Mr. Roth, whatever. He took a long while to reply, he seemed to revel in the annoyance of this Mr. Furion, even I (just by his voice) was already intimidated by him. Finally sephillius began to talk

"It goes quite well Mr Furion, as you well know the synthesized gene was a complete success, and you saw the video, the winner, a Ms bennet. (Someone made a very silent shuffling noise) was very impressive, she has been processed duly and I'm quite proud to say, is a very impressive specimen, the virus has taken to her almost perfectly, it always does if there is residual feelings of resentment, jealousy and the like. But yes, she will be a fine addition to the generals project." There was some awkward silence until a more sly voice spoke, a voice I hadn't heard yet

"Sephillius, have you seen the statistics of the virus?" there was a low laugh that was coming from who I guessed was sephillius, deep in my stomach it was starting to join in his jubilation as well. Stupid shadow. The reaper spoke again

"Ah Mr, grey…Mr Benjamin grey why would I need statistics, and numbers, this thing is a part of me. I can sense every single subject under the virus, well all except some, with whom I can only sense a slight presence. But I have no need for numbers Mr Grey" Mr grey continued, as if to try and redeem himself for the stupidity of the statement.

"But well, its just very impressive…" Mr Grey stated. There was a silence for a while. Until Mr furion spoke again

"Gentlemen have we any more questions for the committee, having of course covered the more intensive topics in the beginning, anything of abstract one would like to ask?" the was some shuffling which I guessed was the rest of them shaking there head.

"Then gentlemen, we are dismissed, we shall all see each other at your exhibition match, which you promise to be more then interesting do you not sephillius?"

"Oh I have no doubt about it" sephillius said in a sneering tone

"Good, I look forward to meeting this 'frost' of yours, we all known of our previous efforts in mutant genes have met with…mixed results." Then there was nothing but the sound of footsteps. And then silence, I decided not to follow them, I was still recoiling. How could the reaper honestly have anything to do with me? I saw something, a file. There was a file left on the table, I delved into my senses to see if it was clear, there was no apparent danger.

I pushed the great out of its place and grabbed it with a tentacle protruding from my forearm and I flipped down onto the desk. And landed silently, I placed the grate back where it was supposed to go, it seemed to fit back in place perfectly, which was a bit strange. I sat down in the illustrious chair, it was almost, overly comfortable, actually this entire room seemed to be overly decadent, the table was long and oval and seemed to be made of the best wood possible, the chairs were cushioned heavily with high backs I opened the folder, it seemed to be a ragtag collection of a bunch of things. The first page had a photo of a handsome looking man with a broad smile and slicked back silver hair with short bangs sticking out the front. I looked at it for a while, it was the reaper! He seemed a lot younger. His face seemed to be more innocent, and less well, evil. Sephillius was so strange that way. I read on, the document seemed to be a lot older, as if printed years ago, about a previous event. It read:

_House of m file; FF-7 _

_**THE PRODIGY:**_

_Seth E. Roth (Sephillius Edward Roth) _

_Sephillius at a young age exhibited unusual abilities and was inducted into the society of the godsent by age 20, he was trained by renown hero trainer and forefather to the godsent society itself, Horatio gast, below is an excerpt from Professor gast's analysis of sephillius:_

"_the boy, who has adorned himself 'the prodigy' is a remarkable child, one of the most promising subjects I have come across, as far as abilities go, beyond the point of possessing the usual advanced abilities the boy seems to be able to feel the presence of other emotions, I have not yet ascertained the affect on the boys wellbeing, he seems rather distant upon asked as such. However his powers also seemed to be manifesting form of offensive powers, upon slight abilities to alter people's base urges somewhat he also seems to posses a mysterious array to summon weapons at will seemingly manifesting simply at random. The boy seems to be quite social, especially in the case of phoenix madden, the two have become fast friends and are seen to be hanging out a rather lot. There abilities seem to compliment each other well. I question the influence the boisterous and egotistical phoenix will have on the so far, emotionally unscathed sephillius. I will continue to observe this promising specimen and will file anything of note.- Prof. Horatio Gast-_

_**The downfall of the organization, **_

_As is common knowledge, the insidious group known only as 'the organization' whom has been a plight upon the society of the godsent for as many can remember, always must one be vigilant of the constant spies, and possible abductions, in order for them to exploit their powers, which is simply their reason to exist, boosting their own power and influence by using others to further their own gain, it had also been common conception that they had there influences within local governments and global military as well. A military task force of our design, which was rare considering most of our society don't truly posses powers of a weaponized manner. The task force was lead by Phoenix madden, and 'The Prodigy" and was met in ultimate success, and had sent the organization in a seemingly recessive cycle and ultimately finalized recession after this monumental historical event, little has been known of the poster boy of the godsent society since. Seemingly gone into self exile and has denied requests for interviews_

_The future press- jarl Kent-_

_**Organization file. 023 project advent children. **_

_Plans, have been set, and a seemingly possibility to a rise of power had been brought to the table in recent events. This is news considering the downward spiral of recession the organization has been in since its defeat. The organization has played this card allowing it to build its strength inward before outwardly committing itself to public ventures again. However what has surprised me is the form of this news. it has come from a one Seth e Roth, otherwise once known as 'the prodigy' in an ironic turn of events, the once poster child of the godsent society itself and furthermore the pacifistic house of m government. Has come to my attention, seeking audience with me. sephillius has seemingly been corrupted by his own power to see the emotions of others, he had told me' that he has searched the hearts of men and all it contains is evil' neither is any consequence to me, this man is tool in our inedible rise to power. However having a person with such powers will prove of much use to us. Corrupted by his own power, the boy now calls himself 'the reaper' and has detailed to me a plan to corrupt the stronger of our society to our side, by means of a corruptive toxin of his own means, which has been dubbed 'the shadow virus' my prognosis for the future now seems good. This promising young man may well prove to give us an easier rise to power than soon expected. –David furion master #1 _

_Doctors update #42 personal forward to David Furion master #1_

_As requested, inclosed is relevant files containing all such files and nature ascertaining to the one known as 'the reaper' (Sephillius Edward Roth) _

**The shadow Virus: **

_An insidious thing in nature I cannot begin to question, indeed fathom the ramifications such things will have upon the unsuspecting public; however I am a formative man, and my opinion aside. The details have grown as such:_

_The shadow virus has reached its prototype stage, it is of course a corruptive neurotoxin based on retrieving blood corrupted by the man known as "the reaper" whilst the toxin itself is in perfect manner itself. Problems exist on a host basis; it seems to be resisting all forms of adaptation to other hosts, if combined, and diluted with a some sort of constant fluxing fluid allowing itself to attach to each host individually. However as such the 'generals' project has been put in place, allowing me to work with the so chosen by 'the reaper" to adapt the shadow virus to their own personal dna structure, this is a slow and harrowing process, and leaves the subjects, in an aggravated and in lack of a better word…evil state: the so chosen subjects so far, Quentin Maguire, who had the impression of being a kindly person who seemed to be able to heal certain types of diseases, upon emerging from the rigorous process has started referring himself as "cancer" and now posses the ability to deal people with a variety of horrible diseases. Next up months later I was met with a Nathaniel trask, apparently able to manipulate nature to grow in a variety of ways, upon closer inspection this was due to his blood structure being able to interface with chlorophyll, upon the exit of the generals project. The child now came to call itself 'pestilence' and has the ability, to kill organic matter itself. and lastly, just recently I had met the strangest man yet. Simply called Tunx. Upon exiting the generals program the boy came to call himself the crow, and has grown feathers out his arms, existing as a form of powerful wings, on top of this the child seems to be able to manifest images of death. Disturbingly every child upon the exiting the program, has grown distant and twisted. _

_However this is only a temporary solution and I suggest finding a more temporary way to translate this powerful neurotoxin into a host with ease and interpersonal way. More study shall be attended to. – Professor K Keelan_

_**The legion program:**_

_Based upon the finding of rare, constant fluxing dna, apparently from host; 'blood'; the legion program has met with instant success, as has the application of the shadow virus to common populace; specifically, the creation of 'clones' based upon simply the mix of shadow virus and 'blood' dna. The project first aimed to make super soldiers, highly paramount to normal humans, this meant in the creation, of 'project raven' however this was met with failure due to an unresponsive host and unresponsive dna, host has been kept in stasis but is still seemingly a complete failure. Further study is required into the nature of the dna and toxin in regards to project raven. However upon finding,. Fresh sample unto which being able to synthesize actual, close replicas; however success was met by putting some of the original dna, inside sample hosts of impostor dna. However I request further amounts of original dna, in order to create more clones. Clones are somewhat vocally unresponsive, and seem to be loyal to Mr Roth only at this point. Professor K Keelan, in reference to David furion master #1 _

After that something was scribbled in pen in a blank page near the end

_Sephillius uses are coming to an end. _

I couldn't believe what I was reading. Somehow, the force for good that had helped take down the organization, is now responsible for its new rise. It meant the reaper, the one whom was making us all attack each other in some vaunted idealistic reason of joining the generals, of the new army of the future. The reaper, sephillius had been trained by the professor himself, from what it seemed had yet to form the institute, my mind felt like it was going to explode. I couldn't take any of it. It was too much information, I know I was here for information, but this was just too much. And then, right there. A professor K. Keelan, who was he? Was he? Could he possibly be my father? It seemed so unreal... my father! How was that even possible, how would my father possibly condone the actions of this evil group? Was my father evil? Perhaps that's why my mother never talked about him? I needed to find this man, he would answer my questions, and how could he use my dna to power a new generation. That was something totally worse, everything seemed to be linked between me and sephillius. Blood and the reaper; The reaper's blood containing a toxin able to corrupt people to his own needs. Mine giving the means to make the toxin transferable, I felt dirty, I felt unclean, somehow I was responsible for all this evil, again my veins pumped with evil, it always came back to that didn't it? At every turn my body tried to slap me down and show me that my body could so be used for evil, or my blood was trying to kill me. or because of me someone else was trying to kill other people. I was so fucking sick of being used as a pawn, so sick of being crucial to everyone's plans! Had I played simply into the vice of the organization? No I reminded myself, I came here upon my fruition. I stormed out of the room and into the dark hallway, I stared into the darkness and tried to calm myself. questions were meeting with violent answers everywhere in my head, my head began to throb, and I felt like tentacles were going to explode out of my head. I fell down to my knees while grabbing my head, I couldn't scream I could be found out; I just had to stay there and take the pain silently. Slowly and painfully my thoughts returned to my own. I pushed my head against the cold stone wall and took a few deep breaths. What was this, this shadow, truly it couldn't be me? was this evil within, or was it from something else, I thought back to what I had just read, was it possible? Could this madness, all this madness? I pursed with madness, my own madness! Fuck this shadow shit! I needed to find this K. keelan, he would have the answers! He would know what to tell me, and if he was truly my father, then he will pay for his sins! No matter who he was to me, he had no right to unleash all this upon the world! But what did David Furion mean by Sephillius uses are coming to an end, I suppose it stuck to the true idea of the organization them being, to exploit us for their own means. But there was a double ended sword to this all. I felt that sephillius had predicted this act of betrayal, I also for some reason knew he was probably gambling on it. I couldn't think. I just needed to lie down and try to sort all this information into so way it could help me, I keep thinking, what would change someone so pure of heart, to a heart of evil?

CHAPTER 23

A sinful ghost

It was no use. Sleep was no use, there wasn't a point. My brain was melting; my life was freezing over, I was a contradiction myself. And inside me twisted a darkness, a darkness I was sacred of, it was like a violent being living inside me, was I truly a host to this evil shadow virus, a twisted concoction of the reapers own dna couldn't be true, I couldn't believe that something so evil was inside me.

It couldn't be true.

It was like a snake rolling around in my stomach, striking at my every good thought, I pushed it away, I needed to think straight for a second, I got up, it was; well I guessed it was morning, this whole not being able to see the sky was getting to me. I needed to see the sunlight; I used to hate the sun. Used to despise it and here I was in eternal darkness (something I used to crave) and now I hated it, there was so much darkness in my life right now, I needed a glimmer of hope, I needed somewhere to go. Somewhere to turn, like a tunnel with a light at the end, but I had no light, sometimes all you needed was to see your destination to spur you along your journey. I got up. Everyone was already sleeping, so I snuck past them, I didn't care about being caught anymore! What would they do? I don't think I have a weakness yet, and hell if they push me too far they have to face my shadow form; and I truly didn't want that for anyone. It was still dark, why do I always seem surprised by that, of course it is, I was underground! There was something I needed to do, I knew that the last competition was only hours away, but I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't eat. I needed to find this K. Keelan, who was he? And he was really responsible for these things; I was going to make him atone. I pushed my head into the high ceilings and pictured those three paths, down the first I had found that odd room full of all old papers and that eschewed paper on the legion program, on the second I found the meeting room; which well held pretty much way too many answers, the third one would lead to something else, I mean everyone of that crossroads had lead to something, and even for curiosity sake I had to traverse down it.

There it was the third path. I stared down the other two and a shiver ran down my spine; I took a deep breath, and stepped down the path, my hand contorting itself into a sword almost instinctively. There was a blue hue down near the end, this hallway had no other rooms, just this large one at the end. I started to pick up speed, I don't know why, finally I had made it too the door, I swung it open with no hesitation, I was through with precautions! The room was huge, it reminded me of a mix of phoenix's room and the professor's there were wall to wall screens one had a massive red dna strand spinning around on it, two the side in a section that you couldn't get too was a tank. I couldn't see much of it, only really a face, it was white with flowing black hair, on the top of the tank it said "project raven' I moved closer to it, this was project raven? It was a boy, he looked the same age as me, hell something about him looked like me! Was that because he was made from my dna? I hadn't actually read them specifically using my dna. I pushed my hand to the glass it was cold. But something sucked my hand in, well it felt like that. But my hand was still touching the glass. Did I just see project raven move? No of course I didn't. then my sense kicked in there was somebody behind me I turned around immediately while he was just about to yell at me

"YOU WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!" the man was tall, about six foot five, and his long black hair was tied back in a pony tail with some of his hair poking out over his forehead. He had some slight spectacles on that seemed to be there for appearance more than anything. I cracked my neck and shaped both my hands into blades, my thoughts started to fill with violence, I kept them there, and I let just a little bit of the shadow wash over me. I pointed a blade at him and yelled at him at the top of my voice

"YOU!" the man seemed rather scared he stepped back a little almost colliding with a desk

"B-blood" tentacles sprouted from my back

"My name is Navar….USE IT!" the man then fell into a bunch of high standing objects and then onto the floor I jumped and landed next to him, he was muttering to himself senselessly

"It…cant…it…cant be possible, NO…NO! Your lying!" the man stood up violently and pushed his finger towards me accusingly

"Stop lying!" I was being overwhelmed by violence I clenched my fists and bit down on my teeth

"I'm not lying you idiot!" the mans face overwhelmed itself with shock. He threw himself to a chair and swept a bunch of stuff of his desk violently.

"Are you sure your not lying…" the man said weakly I retracted my blades and pushed my shadow as far away as I could. Again it hurt I grabbed my head in reaction, the father tsk'd in reaction. I looked up at him and said coldly

"What?" he put his glasses to look at my face

"Navar, Navar Keelan?" I looked at him a bit strangely as I started to regain my balance

"Yes, I already said that didn't I…" the man continued to stare at me strangely

"And they call you 'blood' don't they" I had all of my sense back now

"Yes…why?" he brought his hands to his mouth and just sat there, just staring at me, for ages not saying anything. He rushed over at one point and got a file as looked through it, he threw it in the bin with an amazing amount of resolution. He put out his hand weakly

"Kim Keelan, nice to meet you…I guess…I'm your father" I looked at him shocked, I think I tripped over, but I knew, I just knew it was him. I didn't want to take his hand, he was evil. He had done so much evil things

"I'm not shaking your hand! I want answers! All those things you've done…why!" the man just cried for a little, simply broke down and cry, I had seen men cry before, in the hospital, but it was the way the man did this, like he just been wanting to do it forever. I still didn't want to touch him.

"I…I didn't know… I thought you were still in the hospital… I left when you were three and a half, I started working for a company that was a live-in position, so I could pay for your hospital fees and then…THESE BASTARDS! They've kept me here" I held his gaze, the man was almost hysterical.

"I WAS A PRISONER! FORCED TO DO ALL THEIR FUCKING WORK, AND I WAS DOING IT ALL FOR YOU!" I held my gaze, his shoulder he was trembling. he looked at his watch and then tried to ferret me out the door

"You have to go! The next battle starts soon…and if your not there sephillius will know! He still doesn't know yet son! You can block his ability to sense you somehow, Ile talk to you tomorrow but it means you have to win. Son can you win? I looked at him for what felt like a century, probably longer, trying to get a grasp whoever it is he was, the man seemed genuine, his story seemed so pitiful. So coincidental. I dunno, but he was right about something I needed to get back, I left the man straightening himself up. And ran for my dorm, I made it, of course I made it.

This was it. The last ten, up the top was the usual generals, plus jade. Or frost now. She was wearing a white singlet and a black mini skirt, the tips of her fingers were iced over in a cruel way, she sat on the edge of low seat with he knees together and spread out so her long black boot's souls were not completely touching, her eyes while still frosted over held more malice, and her white bluey tinged hair seemed spiked more somehow. In front of them sat four men. I recognised one of the men instantly, it was nikki's dad! I didn't know what to do…I just stared up at him, with the most vicious intent I could, how could he do this to his family? Why had jade not recognised him? Maybe it was he who made her join the whole time? I was alight with violent urges. I couldn't control myself much more, so much more injustice, more darkness. More anger. The reaper spoke, it was so different now that I knew who he was

"Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome again, my final ten…this is isn't it, one of you after this will get to become a part of these privileged few whom are generals, and as an extra privilege we have with us…the committee of four! These masterful men are the brains and force behind the organization itself!" he finally said it, by now of course I already knew; but he had finally said it. The reaper pointed his gloved hand to the bearded man,

"Master number one! His supreme'ness David furion!" Of course, it had to be him, he was the man who spoke with such power, I could already tell, his eyes held a fierce glaze and his black suit beheld quite a might man, as his beard jaunted out at different angles, he looked about fifty. The reaper continued

"Second master, Benjamin grey" it was like almost like I had already seen these people, this was the man with the odd voice the creepy sly one. Benjamin bowed slightly, he had sleek black hair that was parted and went just a bit past his nose, he was very skinny and his eyes were a creepy shade of green.

"Third master….Arthur bennet!" jade didn't even flicker any emotion, she looked up to him, but that was about the biggest sign of emotion, it took everything I had not to simply destroy that man on the spot.

"Fourth master, Liam stanos" he had a short beard and an oddly jolly look about him. Everyone but me clapped I simply drilled my eyes as much as I could into Arthur bennet. That bastard. Then with a simply click the battle started. I looked over. It seemed like darius had a silent agreement with Elijah that they were going to fight with each other first, darius was dribbling a white ball of his adhesive poison while darius had turned into his phoenix form, a loud bird shrill emanated through the room. Why had no one noticed there were only nine of us, I didn't really care what was going on around me I was walking up to Arthur when something slapped my back. It was one of those blonde girls that followed gun around. She could stretch her body parts, then without even a flicker of me controlling it, I formed into my shadow form. It jumped quickly on the girl and quickly stabbed her through the chest, it was brutal. I couldn't believe how efficient it was, I was trying to tear myself back to Arthur bennet, and he had to pay! But I couldn't control any of it. I just couldn't. I flipped over a tentacle stabbing the other blonde girl straight through the head, I didn't even want to watch myself anymore. I noticed the battle between Elijah and darius was over quickly, as I had learnt, green flame had a strange reaction to real flame, or at least phoenix's flame. Three people rushed at me, I noticed Hiro was fighting off gun, and losing. I didn't even have time to see what there power was, my body pre-emptied there advances by lunging at them. Straight through there chest they were down in an instant, I couldn't take the ferocity of this much more. It was down to Hiro, gun, and myself. gun peppered Hiro with so much shrapnel bullets, he was probably more metal than skin, Hiro looked blank as his body fell to the floor. Now it was just me and gun. This ones for you katlin, wherever you are. Tentacles sprouted from my back my hands became blades

"I've been waiting for this for a while you wall crawling freak" I cracked one smile and jumped so fast he had no time to react, stabbed directly both shoulders, and through one ankle and I broke one of his wrists. A shield came over him, it was over before it began, my shadow form just laughing evilly. The reaper appeared in a puff of smoke and shook my hand, I didn't want to touch it, maybe he would finally sense whoever I was, if common sense hadn't kicked in by now that is. I didn't shake his hand, he smiled and laughed a little bit

"Congratulations my boy, and I will deal with you in a minute if you could just wait I have business with this one" I looked at him a bit curiously and then retracted my black suit, it felt like ripping off my skin at this point. The reaper stood over gun and pulled him to his feet, most of guns wounds had been healed, not completely, and I was glad that his pride had probably suffered the most. The reaper spoke to him, but in a way the rest of the room could here as well

"Boy, I admire you, I see a little bit of me in you. Would you care for a second chance?" I had read sephillius history, he was nothing like gun, and perhaps he was in complete denial. Gun staggered on and then seemed to regain a bit of himself, I really wish he wasn't offered a second chance

"Yes sir, I would, I can prove to you, that only I am worthy!" the reaper laughed and slapped him on the back.

"Ok then, its simply you must fight one of my generals, and last more then five minutes" gun looked at him a bit sceptically

"That's it?" the reaper smiled evilly

"That's it? Choose now!" gun looked around at the generals. He seemed to make his decision rather fast.

"I wanna fight the one called sin" good, I was hoping he would fight sin, maybe seeing him in action would reveal to me why he seemed so familiar. The reaper laughed

"So be it" he disappeared back the stage and gestured towards sin, who teleported in the same fashion. The sin still showed no sense of emotion, he, it just seemed empty. Chains rattled over his cloak and he just stood there floating waiting for a sign. The reaper clicked his finger and gun threw as many baseball sized shrapnel bombs at sin, it seemed like a fair overkill, but sin simply lifted one of his fingers, and black portals appeared in front of the balls, and then instantly appeared in front of gun barraging him with his own shrapnel. Amazing. One stray piece of shrapnel gun managed to manoeuvre, I never knew he could change the course of his shrapnel before now. Managed to hit the hood of sin. And there he stood, with a face so pale, and flowing red eyes. there he stood. Ronny

CHAPTER 23

Shadows fall

Ronny? What the hell was Ronny doing here? But it was him, I knew it was him. But he looked so different, so distant, like only a shadow of him was left. His face was blank and expressionless. His eyes flowed with red energy, and his cloak billowed out; giving no possibility to ascertain if he even had a body. I called out to him, he didn't even look my way, and I got a weird glance from the reaper before him teleported to be right in front of me

"He is Ronald no more son, he is sin now; Ronald Platt was a lifetime ago. And you shall be someone new soon as well…very soon, tell me son; what is your name?" I looked at him for a while, it seemed he couldn't identify me with his powers, this shadow virus, whilst it could still influence me, he couldn't sense who I was, and this was a great advantage I had over him. He could never know that I was Navar Keelan, son of Kim Keelan and the world's first omega mutant. I needed an alias, something that I could falsify, I smiled at him and held out my hand, I didn't want to touch it but I knew I had too.

"Err…Scion Shadowmayne" what? That was the corniest name I had ever come up with, just when I was through with word vomit, there it comes again, sigh; there was no way he's going to believe this, what kind of name was 'Scion Shadowmayne' anyway I tried to act like it wasn't as odd as it really was. However the reaper just smiled at me I guess sephillius was a pretty stupid name anyway.

"And such it is time for you to shed your human name, it a disease on the power you will become, it is your past, you need a name for your future, what shall it be boy?" I looked at him for a while, his perfect white teeth and handsome complexion staring back at me. I needed to lie my way through this, I looked at my hands, it was corny, but I was already going in the corny direction. Might as well keep going that way

"Err how about the Shadow?" the reaper clapped his hands and smiled

"Excellent choice! If you can please follow one of my reavers, you will be processed, and emerge a general! And must I congratulate you on your win, I had my eye on you this whole time, your violence, and viciousness towards your enemies is an admirable quality" my stomach retched, he liked everything I hated about myself. he liked the shadow, not me. and yet I was the shadow, wasn't I? I didn't think I really had a choice to accept or not. This didn't seem like the kind of offer you could turn down, nor did it really seem like anyone wanted too, and indeed my shadow would not let me not follow the direction of denying him. I plodded along, following one of the wordless reavers, clutching at my stomach in a vain attempt to hold my rage in, it was all I could do. And it was getting worse, it was painful, even more painful than before, and there were short tentacles growing out of my back. I tried to think of these things, what they really were, inferior dna, with a strand of my dna. My dna! I couldn't do anything, If It was possible for me to concentrate I think I could isolate the stand of dna that was my own, but I couldn't, there was too much rage inside of me. We stretched and plodded along, why couldn't this giant walk faster! His cloak swung every time he turned the corner I coughed out something, it was black blood, and this was causing me extreme pain. Finally we reached our destination, the reaver gestured towards the door and I jumped in without warning, anywhere was better than this pain. I hadn't even noticed where we had travelled, but I could tell it was the laboratory I had been to. It was the lab of my fathers, except nearly everything was smashed. My father sat in a corner sitting against a wall, his face was expressionless, he looked distraught, he exuded hopelessness, I decided at this point to believe my father, the face he had, his aura, his presence; It couldn't lie. He really had been a prisoner in this place, churning out all manner of evil scientific experiments; all in the name that he thought (even though he couldn't escape) the name that he was saving me. It was truly a tragic tale, question was, what was I going to do about it, how can I help this stranger who was supposed to be my father? He looked up to see me on my hands and knees taking deep breaths, I was still recovering from the barrage of the reavers, I coughed up more black blood, anymore of this and I was going to die, I just knew it, it was ripping me apart at the seams. My father rushed up to me and got onto his knees and swabbed a sample of the blood I had coughed up. Gross. I sat there, and pulled myself over to a cabinet and rested on its hard cool surface, taking deep breaths to try and regain my sanity, I looked up to my father, he was hmm'ing and aaah'ing until he turned to me worriedly

"I never expected this result…" I looked up to him curiously but weakly at the same time

"Expected what?" he kneeled down and sat himself parallel to me on the other bench.

"It's killing you" I looked at him with a blank expression, and replied

"Yeah…tell me something I didn't know" he looked shocked a pushed his spectacles up a little more.

"I don't think you understand…the virus…is KILLING you" now I had finally gotten the impact of what he was saying, the virus was truly killing me, as in my life ending. Great more bad news, more shadows and darkness, and evil.

"What do you mean?" my father looked at his hands

"The shadow virus, which is sephillius's dna; is having an adverse reaction on your blood stream, well its hard to really call it a bloodstream really. However its trying to eat away part of your bloods dna, to replace it with its own strands, technically changing your molecular mix-up, but your dna isn't normal, and its trying to fight the change, leaving parts of your dna incomplete. And well its changing you somehow, have you been experiencing changes? I was shocked, I looked at my hands and converted it to a claw, of course a black one; and held it up to him

"You mean like this?" he looked at my hand, almost disgusted.

"Anything else?" There was of course the shadow, the violent urge I hadn't manage to really front up to until now. I ran my hand through my hair ( it had since reverted back to its original form)

"Its like there's this whole other entity lives inside me, and its twisting my thoughts, always thinking of evil and violence, and its getting harder to control; like its taking me over. ITS RIPPING ME APART!" I was so shocked at my reaction, I guess I had never vented my anger on this whole shadow arc. How could I get angry, when anger was what was controlling me. all this darkness was enveloping me, it was like I was seeing through a tunnel. and it was getting smaller. My father was looking even more frazzled then before he stood up and got something.

"You have to get out of here; the shadow virus is stronger in sephillius's presence, it's a part of him! I haven't had time to fully investigate the full effects of the shadow virus, but he controls those kids! All of them, that scar on your wrist is the mark of the shadow virus, I don't care how you do it, just get out of here! I wont have my only son here, and I've made a decision, I'm destroying all my work, damn the consequences! I've been doing all this stuff against my will for sixteen years! The only thing keeping me going was that I thought I was helping you! And then the bastards have come in here and assimilated my own son with the fucking shadow virus! To hell with everything; I can give you this suppression drug, I doubt it will work fully. But It should still work somewhat; Navar you have to promise me that you wont worry about me. for what its worth I can still do some good in this life, in that way my life hadn't been in vain" what was he talking about! Making the ultimate sacrifice, all for me? I was so sick of people doing things on my behalf, or expecting me to do things, there was no way I was going to let my father sacrifice himself for me. But he was right; I needed to get out of this place! I couldn't take it anymore, I was going mad. The shadow was so much stronger in here, maybe out there, with this suppression drug, I could get control, just for a little bit. My father had a tear streaming down one eye, but his eyes burned with determination. I smiled, even though it was foolish it still felt nice that he had loved me, after all these years. The injection started to act instantly, like it was a coolant, everything started to seem easier, it was working. But it wasn't enough. It was fading away slowly. I got up to my feet and clenched my fist into a claw, it was still black. I walked out to the room and just before I left the door I turned to my dad who was already deleting files on his computer

"I'll come back for you" he looked at me with that fiery determination

"Don't" he answered, I smiled at him and held my gaze

"Nobody denies the wills of an omega mutant" he looked at me and then mouthed 'don't' again and set back to his computer. Out… I needed to get out. But how? I started running down the hallway and then past my dorm, my legs increasing in speed with every stroke. There was only one way out and that was the way I had come, through the main hall. I turned down there and whipped a tentacle on a 45degree angle to the roof to pull me along faster, I flipped and rode the recoil all the way to the main hall, it was empty, and that was a good thing. There it was the large doors. I had only a little amount of time to take in how strange the main hall was when it was empty. I made it to the large door, they were locked, closed shut, and they even looked fused shut. I punched them, they were made of hard material, they looked like wood, but there was something more about them. Something stronger. I couldn't punch through it without making too much noise, I had to faze through it. I don't think I could do it again, I had only done it once before at that time it was an accident. I opened my mind, tried to open every pore in my body to be susceptible to phasing through this door. I pushed myself into it, it was hard, it was like pushing a ball through a needle but it was working, slowly my lungs started to harden, I hated this feeling, it was like extreme claustrophobia I closed my eyes, I couldn't look at the middle of nothing, it would be horrible, and then as soon as it had begun it was over, I had made it to the other side of the door, the long, wide steep staircase stood before me. it was glorious! I took a moment to catch my breath, I hated phasing through things, almost as much as flying. No time! I needed to help my father before he was found out. I ran as fast as I could up the stairs I could hear loud thumping music in this distance, I entered though a small door, it was the nightclub, and there were still people everywhere. And a big banner saying, 'HAPPY NEW YEARS!' it was new years eve? Wow, showed how aware of time I was in that horrible place, but I still needed to get out, get away. I pushed through the crowd as far as I could. And finally I made it to the exit. I saw the sky! the beautiful sky! its stars twinkled at me in response, and my whole body felt relieved, I felt relief for the first time in a while, I felt like I had more control over the shadow. There were people all over the streets chanting and swaying drunkenly to themselves, they had no idea of problems. That other society, the society of ignorance. I whipped myself up to the tallest building I could find, to hell that could see me! I got on my hands and knees and breathed, the shadow didn't want to leave that place, and it was like it was being ripped away from the one thing it desired,. No more! NO MORE! I was sick of this stupid thing! I concentrated all I was, everything I had to getting rid of this insidious beast inside me. behind me people were counting down something

5.

I searched deeper, for something, anything to use. Anything to get rid of this thing.

4.

The shadow was fighting, I needed me, and it wanted me. It couldn't leave without me

3.

Something, something inside me, shined; there was hope, a glimmer a hope

2.

The light grew from my chest, it warmed me all over. It was burning the black away; cracks of light were appearing all over the black suit

1.

A glorious feeling of warmth and joy, and total light, the only thing I remember was light and then, red. Glorious red  
HAPPY NEW YEARS!

It was over! There it lay. The carcass of the shadow virus next to me. It looked like a ripped skin suit of black goo, it was evil, and I hated that fucking thing. I flung it toward the direction of the stupid organization,

"you wanna go there fine, go there!" I shouted. And then something glorious, through all the cheers of new years triumph, there was something glorious, red, I saw red. My red suit. I never thought I would see it again, a glorious thing. My shadow had fallen.

CHAPTER 24

(Don't) fear the reaper

Sephillius:

Excellent.

It was all I could think; it was all going to plan, all of it. I rubbed my eyes and showed my teeth in a smile, they were still droning on. Suited men, all of them with enough power and influence to crush a nation, and all they did was sit around and plan, and talk about planning about it. They were the committee of four. They were the leaders of the organization. 'Masters' as they liked to be called, and here I was with this meeting (probably the first in a long line of meetings) that was why these people needed me, needed the reaper, these men were to busy planning, and idealising things; they needed a man of action, of purpose, and resolution. It still didn't make things any more interesting. I looked around the room, first at Benjamin Grey, the kind of man who would claw his way up the ladder by pushing other people off. He was conniving, backstabbing and sly. But most of all he was a coward. Beside him sat Liam Stanos, admittingly I didn't know much about this man he was a mystery, he never said much, but he seemed to have quite an affinity with the younger godsent population, but most importantly his ambiguity was a threat. Next to him, at the head of the table; facing me directly, was David Furion; master number one, leader of the organization at large, the man was consumed so much by his own power, and sway he held, that he was festering, sitting on his riches and not making a move in case he loses it, most of all. He was a procrastinator. And lastly to my right was Arthur bennet. Arthur was my kind of man, he had aspiration, he wanted to be on the top, and he was willing to use his own talents to achieve that, hell his own daughter was one of my generals, and did he care? No it was only another notch on his rise to the top. And then a voice,

"And what are your thoughts sephillius?" it belonged to furion, the name. That name! A lifetime ago I was once called sephillius, once upon a time; I was once a different person. I shed a thought of phoenix, tough little phoenix madden, so full of his own wind he was ready to explode, and I was so willing to let him have the limelight, so ready to let him hog the spotlight, but the truly learned knew the truth, that it was I who once took down this insidious corporation.

How cruel irony can be.

Here I sat, on the very table, with the very people I had fought to defeat, oh but a lifetime ago. And what had I found in my life of adventure? In my life time living on the high expectations of everybody? I found; that in the hearts of men is darkness. In the minds of the population beams the thoughts of a thousand things you would never want to hear

Our people are festering.

We need a future, a new future. I have looked into the hearts of children. And there is hope, hope for a new generation. The human condition is rotting, humans themselves are rotting. They need to be superseded.

"Sephillus!" it was that droning voice again, I turned to David furion, with an expression of up most boredom

"What" I wanted to add 'you boring old man' but now was not the time. David looked annoyed at me. good.

"Have you been paying attention at all?" I feinted my hand at him as I rolled my eyes.

"Does it matter? I could just catch up in the next meeting, in what two hours?" David slammed his fist on the table. This was not a man used to insubordance

"Why must you defy me with your inattention to our cause, which might I add, is of an upmost most part…your cause" ahh,… the defiant ways of David furion, turning his own weaknesses against you, of course I knew what he meant. And yes he was correct. But far too modest for his own good, what I think he meant to say was. It was ALL my plan. It started, all those years ago. With a boy called Sephillus. On the lips of everyone's expectations was this boy, this boy known to the public at large as 'the prodigy' and so I went through the motions of training, and becoming a finely tuned weapon of hope. That's what I was called, 'a weapon of hope'. And trained I was, by the best, by Professor Horatio Gast; who was now best known for being the headmaster of the institute, but then; he was a trainer, he was the best, and he only trained the best, and apparently I was the best. And then I was thrust in the limelight, I was the poster child for the godsent, and then when it got too bad for everybody, when the organization finally had a certain amount of footing. They all looked to me, and the weight of the world was mine to bear; the hopes of everyone weighed on their new prodigy. And bear this burden I did, and I alone, of course I had friends, such as the famous phoenix madden, or infamous phoenix madden, take your pick. And stormed the organization I did, and win phoenix and I did, of course there were others… but it was all us really. And it was there, on that day, when I stormed a room similar to this, that I got my taste of darkness, or evil, of malicious and true miss-intent. In the hearts of these men that sit before me now. And yes vanquish these men we did, to imprisonment, and a life of the mundane. But those with enough resolution will always return to their old ways, and eventually, they did. This darkness, this 'taint' I had tasted sent my head into recoil, I began seeing it everywhere; I had to get away, get away from all these evil souls. And get away I did, I went into exile. I went away from these humans and their dark tainted hearts. As phoenix flourished in the spotlight, I wilted into the darkness. And then one night, an emotion swayed over me, one so powerful, so resolute I could do nothing to ignore it. I went to see the source of this emotion and it belonged to a boy, a boy called Quentin Maguire; a boy that could apparently cure the diseases of humans, and was tired of his thankless life. I found this boy admirable and took him under my wing, eventually my influence began to weigh upon him too. And then an idea, a way to cure the pitiful humans of their evil taints, it was in the bible, It was a tenant of life itself. Renewal. And so I visited the start, I found them easily enough, their hearts shined like a beacon to me. Their powerful emotions called to me, and of course the organization was all in all, better for the worse; but they were stuck in a rut of recessive stagnation. And so I came to them with a plan, of renewal of weeding out the evil and regressive human race. And the plan was set in motion. We needed to contract this generation of teens to our course; it was something about this generation, from the sixteens, to the twenty fives; were the strongest godsents the world had ever seen. In my time, powerful godsents were few and far between, but now. It was odder to find a weak one among the teenagers. And so the plan progressed. And I tried to feel for some like Quentin, with a strong resolve for change, but generally such a clear emotion was only in appearance upon great tragedy, but nevertheless I met Nathaniel trask, who could heal plants deterioration processes. But was simply in a manner of a destructive cycle in life, next in my attention came the boy I knew only as Tunx. It was hard to describe this boy, and why he appeared to me; his emotions to the very core, were simply blank, he was an expressionless slate. His first emotion seemed to be hate and suffering, and it seemed he simply stuck to it. the curious thing was then, with the help of an organization scientist, I was able to combine my own dna matrix with these boys, increasing their powers, and twisting and corrupting them in way I never felt possible. In many ways, it worked in a reverse way, turning seemingly good natured defensive powers into weapons of destructive forces, so was born cancer, once Quentin Maguire, now with the ability to give people a myriad of different diseases, my precious Quentin, had now become a valuable tool in my war against a stagnating populace. Nathaniel once able to heal organic plant life, now had the power to destroy organic matter itself. and Tunx had simply grown wings and an even wickeder demeanour, able to manipulate people's minds into seeing visions of death, and destruction and suffering. He too had become a powerful weapon in my upcoming war. And then lastly, only recently did I come across the child known as Ronald Platt. His parents were both killed in an attack by my very own reavers, and the child could do nothing to save them, nothing at all. The child was wrought with guilt; he was retreating further and further into himself. His pain, and suffering was so strong I had to visit this boy; he was willing to do anything to retreat away from the pain of the death of his parents, and upon the emergence of my program, sin was born. The boy who once had the ability to faze his body into intangibility, and seemingly metal chains from his body, could now open portals around whatever he chooses, and transport whatever he targets to somewhere else, I have hypothesized myself that the boys body itself when reacting with my own dna, has turned itself into a pseudo dimension, or at least a dimensional gateway, nevertheless he too was a tuned weapon in my war. But it was not enough, I had generals, people to lead my army; but I didn't had an army, there was still in idea for clones, but the process was stagnating, so I stretched my horizon, I appeared to every teenager, full of angst, hatred, pride, and anything else I could twist against them. I offered them the promise, of becoming a general themselves. And they lapped it up. But somehow I needed definite control over them, I could not put them all through the generals program, it only worked on those with resolute and clear emotions. And then it came, the biggest breakthrough in my plan so far, it was the blood of a boy, ironically called blood. His blood was a constant flux of tiny mutant genes, able to manipulate and absorb any element they came into contact with. Combined with my blood serum, codenamed; the shadow virus' I had a way to gain influence with every teen I came across. And so everything was set in plan, and in motion. And so. Yes it was my plan, I had done it all. And I will do It all. And these, procrastinators, these time-wasters. Would still be here festering and rotting about with their plans. And more plans!

"Sephillius!" I turned my attention back to the room and rolled my eyes, I was so sick of these droning idiots. All they did was complain about the past, how they were once so great. Nevertheless I addressed the by-now furious David furion

"WHAT?" I was now annoyed, and I let this known, these idiots need to know who was the true force behind their future

"How dare you raise your voice at me! You have you no right Sephillus! No right! You WILL pay my attention to our meetings! You will become a part of our groups ways, or cease to be one of us at all!" this man infuriated me, my heart boiled with anger I clenched my gloves hands and slammed them onto the hard wooden table. The sound echoed all through the room.

"Cease to be! Cease to be! How could you even say that you stagnating fool! You and your overpowered friends would still be rotting away planless if I hadn't helped you! And you have the nerve! The fortitude to remark me with such tongue!" I was furious. These stupid old men! David furion rose out of his chair and slammed his fists on the table. Everyone else ping ponging themselves between me and him. I rolled my eyes, I was done with this old man, and as a matter of fact I was done with them all.

"Your usefulness has outlived itself Mr. Furion." His eyes widened and he went to shout out something no doubt abusive but he had no time, I clicked my fingers. And a halo of black mist appeared around his neck, and in seconds the black mist sharpened and pieced his neck, quickly guillotining the head of a man, so used to holding civilisations in the grasp of his hand, the man was now dead. Good riddance. The men looked around at me, so stunned that there faces were stuck in position. I looked at them and straightened your face

"You just weren't in my vision of the future…" they gaped there mouths open to say something, but again it was too late, the process repeated itself and then they were dead, finally these stupid procrastinating old men were dead.

"Well then I guess the meeting is over then eh Sephillus?" Arthur bennet stared back at me.

"It was about time!" he laughed and picked himself stopping only to kick the severed head of David furion.

"Silly old man" I smiled again, it was like always said, and Arthur bennet was a man like me. We had plans.

I walked down the hallway, humouring myself with the fact that the organization was now mine, and mine to command; I had its millions of resources to my own, all to further my humanitarian cause of curing the human condition. Then something. Something powerful. I couldn't tell what it was, but it allured me closer to it. I pushed the door at the end of the corridor open, a blue light shone on the roof; it was the doctor's office. Well at least it used to be the doctors office, everything was broken and pushed over. And the entire place was ram shackled. Perhaps this was the work of the injured teens? Who had failed in the battles previous; these failures were being processed with higher amounts of the shadow virus, to become my pawns in the upcoming battle. And if that had been the good doctors doing, he would now have to answer to me, I would seek his audience soon. But for now something else was alluring me. I walked up to it, it was a large glass cell, filled with some sort of human, I looked above to the plaque, it read "project raven" now I knew what this was, this was the first of the reavers, it was a super being in all sense of the word, but its design was flawed, it was too powerful, it didn't work, but something in it was alive. I put my hand up to the glass as if to try and test the waters

Eyes.

The eyes of the boy were open; they were auburn red and terrifying, even for me. The eyes stared at me intently for what felt like a lifetime. Until the glass began to fracture, and in an instant glass and water burst out at every edge of my senses. I was overwhelmed, until I opened my eyes, there floating in mid air, among a shining red aura, was the boy only seconds before who laid dormant. I looked up to the boy, shining with obvious delight

"Raven…"

CHAPTER 25

On revenant wings

Red.

These people down there could never understand, and they wouldn't. How glorious this was to see.

Red.

I stood up and tried to feel myself, it felt like me, for the first time, in a long time it felt like me. My brain felt like its own, it was beautiful. Something normal people would never understand the beauty of being one with your own thoughts. To simply be by yourself and nothing else. My mind felt free to wander over the reaches of my thoughts, thoughts I was so usually scared by. Near the end of it, I was afraid to search my mind, afraid that I would find that dark, horrible twisted corrupting presence, that evil force that tried so gallantly to relinquish my free will, to turn me into a mindless beast of evil, and destruction, only relying on basic instincts and primal urges, mostly of anger.

But it was over.

I got up and stretched. I didn't let anything affect me, not the lights, the sounds, or all the people flourishing about underneath me. I needed to just be, for a minute. I stretched my hands up into the heavens, they were still red, glorious red. And then instantly they shimmered back to my skin And my hands. And before I knew it, I was me again. For the first time in a while, really me. All of me. I walked over to a puddle of water that had pooled probably some time ago, and stared into it. It was me alright, my hair was still long though. I wondered to myself, was this hair, this longer, darker mysterious hair cut. Was this due to the shadow virus? Then finally something flicked over in my brain, I brought my arm up to my face, and with my other hand rang my fingers along the scar. Was this it? Was this the scar of the shadow virus? It had to be, I remember it now, how it always used to itch, itch so much that it infuriated me. Was that itching, perhaps my body fighting back? That itching was a little sign to the war that was going on inside my body, as it tried to fight the rise of this insidious disease known as the shadow virus. I clenched my muscles. They felt right, none of my senses were acting out of place. It was beautiful, the complications and intricacies of my battle with the shadow virus can be dealt with later, now action needed to be taken, it was only a matter of time, until the reaper or someone else found my father sabotaging his own work, and I didn't strike me that the organization was the kind of people to accept "sorries" I needed help, no way was I going to let my father die, just for saving me! it was time to do something, I cracked my neck and looked onwards to the skyline, it had been a while since I had seen the sky, it was starry, and the moon shone bright above in the night giving everything an eerie luminesce. I needed to cross a massive distance, and in a short time, now was the time to hustle, I didn't care if people saw me. the point of caring about my consequences had passed. I ran forward feeling my muscles revel in there own strength for the first time in a while. I jumped up as fast as I could; I flew up into the air, feeling the wind in my hair as I catapulted in the air. I landed hard on the ground, and I noticed that my blood suit had appeared. I shrugged to myself, it was of little consequence. I shot out two slings from my wrists and yanked myself forward, flying through the air even faster now. Flying over two glass buildings. A think a couple of people noticed me, I sensed in the back of my mind there heart rates picking up, probably due to seeing a red oddly shaped blur flying through the air. I landed on another building. I could see the bridge I needed to cross far in the distance, and past that a little bit of the Sydney harbour I needed to cross. I was going too slow, time was of the upmost essence and I was simply going too slow. I needed to speed myself up, I tried to think speed; I let my body be speed. I felt lighter all of a sudden. I pushed my muscles to the max and began to run, little grooves in the cement in the ground were appearing from where I had pushed off with my legs. I ran as fast as I could, and dived straightforward to the next building, flipping and rolling into my next run. I repeated the process again and again, but it was still too slow.

"Dammit!" I yelled up into the air as I smashed my fist into the ground. I had no time to even revel in the fact that for once my anger was my own. It was still too slow. Way too slow! I could see the bridge, but I needed a way to cross quicker. Then as if by response

Something.

Something from my back, it hurt. I got to all fours. It wasn't a bad hurt, it felt different, like a good kind of hurt, but then I was still so jubilant from being able to experience my own emotions, good or bad, in the end, they were still my own. My back peaked, and then suddenly it all stopped, I was too scared to open my eyes, hadn't I had enough metamorphoses by now? Had my body not changed enough by now? There was something different in the air, I shut my senses off I didn't want to know what had happened. But I couldn't block out it all, there was something different about the air around me, as if was moving, volatile, feathered. I couldn't help fight my curiosity; I squeezed my eyes open. Around me, was something, something skin like. It felt, revenant; like it had always been there, I looked over my shoulders.

It was wings!

Wings!? Why did I have wings? They were long, very long. At least two meters in full spread, they resembled something leather and skin like, but on the bottom of them it was fringed with something like feathers, but more bladed, the top had a point in its apex, where the wing bent, describing it would be like describing the perfect mix of angel and devil wings. I stared at them for what seemed like a long time, simply in awe. Wings. I had wings. I guessed to myself that this could have been my residual powers absorbing some of nikki's. but still this was really cool. I pushed the wings to go harder, I started to float lightly above the roof, and I was actually enjoying this. Knowing how much I enjoyed flying last time, this was a surprise to me. perhaps it was something about me being in charge. The wings worked themselves out, and started to beat against the air rapidly, for some reason my body felt lighter, perhaps I had somehow switched into a sort of a 'flight mode' I was getting higher, and higher, and as such my nerves were growing, honestly I had never been much for heights, but this was something totally new. I willed myself to fly forward, I really didn't know how this whole flying thing worked. Nikki made it seem so easy, and yet here I was flying and not knowing what to do with it. my wings began to beat even faster and then suddenly, without warning the contracted sending me speeding near a bunch of sky scrapers. I whooshed past them, arcing upwards into the sky feeling the fast wind against my face, my eyes seemed to be covered in some sort of film that meant the wind didn't affect my eyes, talk about flight mode. I flew between two glass skyscrapers, glimpsing a shot at myself in the reflection of the glass. I was majestic, yet ominous looking, I was still in my blood suit, and yet from my back sprouted my wings, which flapped effortlessly against the resistance. I pushed harder against the wind, I needed to go faster. The wings contracted and pulled closer to my side, and then with a big push sent me soaring into the sky, the G-force was intense, and then with another foul swoop, I was sent soaring down again. I pushed forward, sending some slings into a set of two trees further ahead of me, yanking them with all the strength I could muster sent me flying even faster. I took a minute to survey where I was, I could see the bridge some ways to my left. Meaning that somewhere in front of me was the mansion, MY mansion, the house I had seen in my dreams, the house I had yearned for. What was even weirder was just this whole flying thing. I think I noticed a little bunch of people that were eyeing me sceptically, I don't think they really knew what they were seeing, and honestly even if they did, you think they would believe their eyes? I swooped forward, diving towards the water, I was about half a meter from it, and I could feel the spray of the water on my face. I stretched out my hand into the water, it was cold, almost freezing, but refreshing nevertheless. My wings whipped against the air, raising some water in their strong wake. I flew up high, I was somewhere in the middle of the harbour now. It was an awe inspiring sight. To be flying in the middle of the Sydney harbour. I surveyed what was ahead of me. Houses, mansions more like it. and then along them I saw it. Shining like a beacon of white hope, there it was! My house and a light was on it glowed to me. I couldn't hide my happiness. My anticipation; I needed to get there, I needed to be there, to be home. I just wanted it with my all, my everything. I flew, oh boy I flew, I've never flown that fast. Hell I've never been that fast before. I flew faster with ever beat of my wings, until I over excelled myself, my house was coming too fast, way too fast, I didn't really know how to slow down, hell I didn't even know how these wings worked.

Crash.

I went through the window. The window that once held a behemoth of a Christmas tree, the window with its triangle-like form that I used to stare out of. My wings flapped about me beating against my skin. It took me a while to get my footing, the wings were unwieldily, and were too big to give me a good sense of balance. I willed them to disappear. And slowly they folded back into my skin. Evidently my crashing through the front window had made a lot of sound, because as I watched my main cuts heal instantly people began to flood through the room with an utter amount of worry on there faces. I noticed Nikki first. But It didn't look like her, her hair was imperfect, her face was haggard, and she was rinsed with tiredness and gaunt. I looked at her, as my skin reverted. And I could feel my face contorting back to its original form I smiled weakly at everybody, but I knew it was weak. Shane ran out from the bottom of the stairs brandishing a silver rapier like sword that plumed with black flame, for some reason I could sense a feeling of lunatic Pandora from the sword, I knew I sensed it, because it gave off the same warmth I felt when touching my piece of the rock. Shane looked at me with a weird amount of feelings, I couldn't grasp what they were, and they seemed so mixed. He just stood there brandishing his sword' with the same look. Adem was behind nikki and came in, rushing at me and grabbing me in a huge bear hug. From everywhere filed the rest, Carissa, Jackson Holmes. And peter. And then from behind them, from the roof entered Kyle…and katlin? I shrugged of everyone for a second, and stared at katlin for a little bit. What was she doing here? She ran off before, there was so little she knew, hell they all didn't know so much.

My friends.

Here they all were, all of them staring at disbelief that I was here, I was staring at disbelief as well. I had yearned to see them for so long; and yet I was coming up with nothing to say, I couldn't seem to think of anything. I just stood there awkwardly, awkward like the good old days, and like the good old days, my mouth was as about as useful as it ever was. It was katlin and nikki at the same time that broke the silence, they both looked at me and ran forward a little

"Nav" they said at the same time, then noticing they both said the same thing. Looked at each other and face me again, everyone now crowding around me in wonderment.

This could not be any more awkward.

I stood and scratched the back of my head sheepishly.

"Girls.." they looked at each other for a while, till nikki spoke. She looked towards katlin

"You know Nav?" she stared at nikki for a while then back to me

"Sure Nav's the guy I was at with that weird place. You guys were always referring as him as Him though I didn't get it. Until now, I had an inkling, but I didn't wanna say anything yet" Nikki looked a little hurt, until she stared at me, what seemed like an eternity

Those eyes.

I got lost in them again. And it was like I was home, like I had forgotten everything that had ever worried me. she ran up to me and hugged me. it felt so good, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pushed my hands down her hair

"I missed you..." I whispered into her ear. She pushed off me and kicked me in the shins.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" and then it started a flurry of voices assaulted me

"Where have you been!"

"Why didn't you tell any of us?"

"Are you ok?" I spread my hands out to everyone, there were sounds all around me, everybody was yelling

"SHUT UP!" I was surprised at how loud my voice was, but right now; I needed my friends, but not their company, for once I needed their powers. I paced the room a little, thoughts of my father flashed through my thoughts, horrible thoughts of him dying, just when I was getting to know him.

I needed him to live.

I ran my hands through my hair and stared at my friends. Possibly the most powerful people I have ever met. And here they were, so surprised, so confused, and so worried, yet hanging on my every word. I stared at them, and breathed in

"Look guys, I'm going to say a lot. And I need to get through it all ok, because, time is really of the essence here ok?" everybody nodded at me silently, I wasn't used to getting such undivided attention, but everyone was paying attention to me, like I was some sort of teacher. I continued

"Ok guys, as you may know from katlin, is well. I've been at the organization, and well my weird behaviour that like weird violent streak I've been having is due to something called the shadow virus. Ok…this shadow virus thing, is like this serum of evil corrupting toxin, and its been mixed with my blood so it can be applied to every godsent this guy called the reaper can get his hands on, and it controls them, this virus controls them, and its all because this guy, the reaper, is trying to create a new world, by killing off every normal human, because he deems them evil, and he may even be able to do it! because he has an army guys, he has these things called reavers, which are basically just clones of my blood and this reavers guys, and there mindless drones and then even worse he has these things called 'the generals' which are like super strong godsents and there all evil, ALL OF THEM! And they have Ronny guys…Ronny! And not even that…nikki…they have jade! And not even the last of it, they have my father, guys he's in there right now, trying to ruin all the reapers work to save me! and I cant let him do it! we have to save him guys, we have to destroy this guy!" I took a deep breath and started to hyperventilate a little the stress of this situation was finally weighing down on me. nikki was the first to act, her back sprouted her six wings instantly he face cavorted with anger

"Why are we wasting time!? If they have my sister! I'm getting her back!" I was almost scared of her resolution, but it was good, I needed her resolve right now.

Time was running out

Shane stepped forward, and flamed himself in a curious black flame. His eyes and mouth white plumes of flame. I almost stepped forward to ask him about it. but he spoke first

"Rothkin is ready! These people will pay for these crimes! And its good to see you nav buddy" suddenly it started to feel cold, even though Shane was on fire. Kyle pushed past Shane and slammed his staff on the ground, a small amount of purple sparks flying out of his staff

"THAT'S IT!" I stared at Kyle a little awestruck at his anger, but I remembered Kyle's animosity about being stuck in the house before. He looked around to everyone

"Whatever happens, and I don't care, but tonight…I'm leaving this house…and tonight something's going to change" I stood back a little as a stared at the moon, I really needed my friends right now. Jackson Holmes bounded out in front of us all

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa… guys, I hate to burst your bubble, and Navar son its great that your back, but using your powers are illegal, you have to remember that boys and girls…its ILLEGAL and even so. There's no way we can stop the inhibitors working, I'm sorry, I truly am" I look down heartened, he was right; I was the only person other than katlin that could step outside of this house and use my powers. Carissa stepped forward, past Linda and Leigh; who I had only just noticed now. I smiled at them, they smiled at me weakly with the same sense of resolution everyone else wore. Carissa chose her words carefully as she stared at her father

"Well…actually…that's not ENTIERLY true" she stared at her watch for a while, and then too me, almost through me. until she turned to face us all

"I can remove the inhibitors right now, for a period of a couple of hours in special conditions, and to me this seems like special conditions." Everyone whispered to themselves until Adem stepped forward to Carissa

"I believe this is a time of special need Carissa Holmes, there are people we know in dire trouble, and from what I understand…what we do here tonight, may stop a future terrorist act" Carissa stared at her father for a while, and then to me, for what seemed like and eternity. She was wasting time.

Precious time!

She revolved her massive wristwatch so it turned itself around, it moulded around her hand a bit better now, and all the weird nodules and pads were folded around her arm to make it look neater and more unwieldily, laser blades appeared from her wrist watch, and then from something on the other side as well. From her shoulders appeared the same laser like substance, which stretched down near her arms length and met with her elbow guard, the same process repeated itself around her legs, until she was loosely coated in what seemed like laser armour

"But if you guys are coming…so am I" Mr. Jackson looked at his daughter stunned for a little bit, and then sighed. I think he gave up on her being his little girl along time ago. She looked around and waited for everyone to nod. When they did she pressed a button. And though I didn't feel anything they evidently did. Mr Jackson sighed and resigned himself to stay here. In case he was needed here. Everyone stood around in a semi circle facing me, all turning their powers on. And again with that amazing amount of undivided attention. I sighed and cracked my neck. Reverted my blood suit, and smiled at everyone evidently through a toothed smiled. My echoed voice boomed through the room

"Everybody ready?"

CHAPTER 26

Hero

"_**there comes a time, in every mans life, where history is doomed to repeat itself, eventually a man will come to a cross roads, and its his decision here that will forge who he becomes, does he choose the road of the easy path? Or the road of challenges. A hero chooses the road with challenges, and challenges he shall bear, for that road, is the road of the hero, and for the hero alone, for in the end; only the hero will drown" –anon **_

This was it. changes were going to happen now. Something was welling inside my stomach, in honesty I couldn't tell you what It was, it felt like angst; humph what was angst anyway, it always struck me as some lame teenage emotion, something that they used to describe predictable feelings in some equally predictable teenager-orientated show, and yet. Something welled inside my stomach, something indiscernible in its fullest, excitement, anxiety, terror, and an insurmountable amount of anger. Feelings, for some reason always seemed to rule me, I imagine with other people, feelings, emotions and urges, would be a second part of their lives, but my feelings, my emotions, my urges; they ruled me, perhaps, in some small way, this was due to my being alone with all but my emotions for so long? Life was still new for me, well this life in any case. And well, I don't think I truly know how to deal with myself. but then here I am, thrown straight into the deep end. Life never seemed to creep for me, for some reason I was always thrust into the exact place where I would make a difference, is this who I am, a hero of being in the right place at the wrong time?

No.

I'm no hero. Heroes are brave, strong and righteous, I was scared, weak, and insecure. I had no right to be a hero. But yet It was my constant comparison; 'nav the hero' nav, the one that saved everybody at the institute, I've spent a lot of time thinking about my actions there at the institute, what would those that admire me, those that see me as a role model, what would they think if they knew, I had been wondering wether to even fight, wondering if I was fighting a war inside myself wether to lose my humanity or not, but then, I guess that makes me more the hero than ever doesn't it? I lost my supposed humanity, for the good of everybody else. I didn't matter, nothing mattered right now, except of course, what was happening right now. I turned around at my friends, all of them, all my friends, all so strong, all so righteous and ready to stand with me together to fight against something they had no Idea what it was. Of course I did, and I think that's what some of this feeling in my stomach belonged too.

The urgency

Out there somewhere, in this place called Sydney was the organization, my father, and a man hell bent on a delusion of grandeur of purifying the world of the evil taint within the human condition. And what was the most scary was

He could even succeed.

Here I was again, thrust into the middle of something biblical, the sort of thing where it comes down to the other guy dying or me. I wasn't a killer, I've only ever killed one person, but then, isn't that enough? And I guess that's not counting the people that have been healed in my battles. But eventually that's what It boiled down, if sephillius wasn't going to stop, would I have to kill him? I don't think I have the kind of mettle for something like that, this life was always testing me, testing me for what exactly? What was it that I was supposed to do, was I given these powers for a reason? What was it that I was destined to do with these powers I was given? I looked up to the stars as the wind picked up around me, and then from my vision a white bird landed on a building somewhere near me, I looked at it for a little bit; the bird was a curious thing, it looked like a raven, but ravens don't come in white, I shrugged and took a deep breath and soaked in what was ahead of me, the city, my destination, my destiny,

Fate.

"Nav!" I was shaken out of my trance, it was Linda, and I looked around her a little accosted from being woken from my trance. I looked around her blankly

"What?" she stared at me for a couple of seconds and rolled her eyes  
"Are we going to keep moving or what, Mr urgency" I shook myself awake, of course. Why was I wasting time dreaming?

"Yes, of course, let's go guys" I pulled my blood suit back up and shot out a sling to the adjacent building. Linda who was covered in an aura of purple energy began to float in the air. Carrying Carissa with her, who obviously couldn't fly. Leigh's ctuthlu creature began to feather the air, behind him loomed Adem's behemoth transformation; I could see his muscles tightening in anticipation. Kyle had a look of pure determination that was only matched by katlin and nikki's. I yanked myself forward and we begun. I could feel them all before me. None of us cared if we were seen anymore. I sent out two more snares yanking myself to the side of another building, running on the side of it. we were making excellent time. Shane flew past me, easily the fastest flyer here, he was revelling in the ability to show us all so, his black flame making him a curious blur in the night. To the front of me, was Kyle who was showing us yet again, his amazing amount of acrobatic dexterity. He ran along the sides of building with his blinding speed, flipping and changing direction in mid air, by using his tail, or sending out a vine to grip on something from his staff, he was easily the most impressive to watch. Even though Kyle couldn't fly, he was sure making up for it. I was almost envious, he seemed to be having so much fun, and he was so sure of his skills, so free. That it was almost envious. I flipped off the side of a building and sent out a snare so I landed on the rooftop of another plain like building. in a thunderous slam Adem landed next to me, his thundering behemoth form powered along using his tentacles from his back to snare himself, and of course his awe inspiring leaps of power. His blue flame that coated his body, gave him the eeriest glow. Against a flagpole I road the recoil shooting me forward like a bullet. Where Leigh, his weird red eyes glowed in the night, his demonic form, looking as terrifying as it was majestic. And around us, circling us, was Shane. I landed, rolling on the floor to ride the recoil, until my legs let me power on. I jumped again, clearing a taller building in the process. I gripped on too a lightning rod with a blood snare, riding the massive recoil I shot out again, the force against my body becoming a sheer part of my senses.

" Way to goo navvy, I never knew you were this good at this" it came from Linda. Who's voice sounded more like a whisper as the wind berated against my ears, next too her floated a very uneasy Carissa, who appeared to be disliking the fact she wasn't in control of her own flight pattern. It was almost funny. My senses flared in the back of my head, warning me that my own flight was coming to an end, next to me Adem's huge hulk flew past. I landed in a ball of tentacles that pushed me onto my back and thrust me forward again. We were a little bit near the direction I travelled to get to guns house I knew I needed to turn soon. Underneath me I could see Kyle's blur of a body flying through the buildings. I tried to make myself as big as I could, by sending out a mass of tentacles as a sort of sign. That we had to turn, and jumped to the left, Kyle quickly manoeuvring and joining me on the top of the building.

"Come on nav, keep up!" he flew past before I could yell at him too 'just wait a minute' Shane appeared next to me and smiled

"Ile show him my true power nav" and he boomed past me. catching somewhat up to Kyle as they raced forward; Adem joined me on the roof top. His chest heaving in exhaustion, obviously his suit didn't feed him energy like mine did. He smiled at me, and yelled out something as he thundered forward.

"Now this is fun isn't it Navar Keelan!?" the combination of Adem's gentle voice, and the brutish blue/black hulk it came from, was almost past odd. I smiled and started to push my legs harder, both Adem and I leaving tiny dents in the roofs as we thundered along. We jumped together, his jump was slightly more powerful, but my blood suit was far more superior than his, and I soon flew past him. Landing somewhere near Kyle and Shane, who had since stopped? I looked around, in fact everybody had stopped. Leigh landed with a flap of his demonic wings, gesturing his pointed claws towards his left, his odd voice echoing through the night

"Where are we going now?" I looked around in a circle everyone was staring at me again. With that same kind of undivided attention I was so not used too. Katlin stepped forward. She was wearing her leather costume she had before, I suppose it was not beyond her to travel home. I was still so confused, why was katlin at my house, out all the houses why mine? She still seemed to be a little awkward around me. she pushed some of her hair out of her eyes, it seemed to be everywhere.

"I think were on the right track aren't we Navar?" I reverted my blood suit and looked around. I shrugged to her,

"I dunno…you were leading weren't you?" she rolled her eyes and pushed her hair back even more. I stared at her for a second

"Didn't you say you knew where we going last time we went?" she sheepishly looked around

"And…I did….but I'm kind of lost…" I almost laughed if I wasn't so desperate to get to the organization. Nikki landed, her majestic wings feathering the air slightly. I think for some small amount of her, wanted to be in this conversation, possibly because she was insecure about katlin's presence.

"Where is it?" I looked around as I titled my eyes to the sky,

Every minute we waste…

"black lake drive! People come on!" Carissa, moved forward momentarily flicking her wristband back to the user interface.

"If we just keep heading forward, we will find it eventually. Linda can you broadcast the directions, and destination to everybody so everybody knows where were going?" Linda nodded affirmatively and she walked over to Carissa and viewed whatever it was she was looking at, and then suddenly, I knew where to go. That sure was handy.

"LETS GET GOING!" I yelled out to everybody a bit louder than I would have liked, but I needed to go, it was that sense, that feeling inside me. It needed to keep moving, was this the supposed hero within me, this righteous force that drove me? no, this wasn't righteous, I had my own selfish needs for getting to that organization. I ran forward, outstretching my wings that felt so odd to me. and I thundered along, the time for theatrics was over. Everybody that could fly joined me. Leigh's wings flapped next to me, he was an adept flyer, but he didn't have the advantages I had, far ahead of us was Shane who was zooming along, leaving a trail of black flame in his wake. And next to me, warming my everything was warm. I looked over to nikki, she was eying my wings weirdly

"Am I responsible for…those?" I looked at her and shrugged

"Probably…" she smiled and showed her teeth

"Good" and she pushed off; needless to say, six wings gave you a lot of thrust. I pushed harder, my body feeling lighter, my wings feeling stronger, I was flying fast now, almost as fast as I was when I crashed into the window. On the ground I noticed the last three who, now couldn't fly. They were all helping each other out. Katlin was using light discs to bridge the gaps between the buildings, still not losing any energy, carrying on like she hadn't been running for miles. Kyle was running and flipping over everybody, occasionally throwing out a vine for them to grip on. Adem at some points, offering to throw some of them a certain amount of distance. It was rather interesting to see, mind you, if anyone was to see the spectacle of seven people flying in the air, and three people running underneath in physically impossible ways, I'm sure they could come up with some other words other than "interesting" slowly we were beginning to get closer to where I needed to be, the buildings were starting to grow denser and taller. It was becoming harder to navigate it in such a group. There were still a bunch of people on the ground straggling around drunkenly, admittingly it was new years eve. And there it was, black lake drive. My heart began to race, and that odd feeling in my stomach stepped up another notch. We all flew lower landing on the ground now. it felt weird to be on the ground now, like it was pedestrian, it was before us now. that bright neon sign, which ironically flashed in plain sight, "the organization" Kyle turned as he strapped his stick to his back

"This is it isn't it? this is where you have been for all this time? here?" I looked over to katlin first, then too Kyle

"Yeah…this is it" the next voice came from Shane, who had reverted his black flame

"Why?" I stared at Shane; this was an interesting question, of course I myself tried to answer this within me, it was to much of a broad question 'why?' it was unanswerable, It always boiled down to my same selfless explanation

"Revenge…" did the words revenge and selflessness actually fit in the same sentence? Adem stepped forward his behemoth form since been reverted

"Revenge Navar?" everybody was looking at me again, even katlin. I gulped in some air, why did everyone always care about my decisions? I stared at them, a little bit angrily; now was not the time to question my decisions

"Look! We can go over all this later! Now we have to get in and save my father!" everybody stared at me curiously for a while

How could they not see?

Shane stepped forward flaring his flames up, and instantly it began to feel cold again.

"Navar's right, its time for action now! so how do we get in?" I nodded to Shane, for once I needed his decisiveness. I pulled my blood suit back up, and sprouted tentacles from my back, I could feel life beyond. It was time to do this.

Chapter 27

Feral

Standing before me, like some sort of twisted beacon, was my destination. It was the place I had spent such a horrific time fighting with myself. Fighting with the shadow virus, fighting with that horrible insidious shadow that creped inside of me twisting and cavorting my feelings into that of anger and pride and primitive rage, I shuddered just to think about it.

"How do we get in?" asked Nikki the thought breaking my pattern

"We just walk in, that's what we did last time" replied katlin. Shane threw a ball of something that looked like heat lines, or invisible flame against the wall, when it got there it exploded in black flame before disappearing. He looked at everybody and smiled

"I call it burst flame" we all shrugged to each other; the important thing is it hadn't done anything but make a dent in the wall. The doors were still closed I looked at everybody

"Were just going to have smash it down" I ran into the door and slammed my shoulder into it, the whole wall shook, but for some reason it seemed to be reinforced somehow

"It's really strong" I said to everybody else as they started to join me pounding against the wall. Leigh transformed into a hulkish like form with big gorilla arms, he doubled in size, and looked more like Adem then the demon he did before, Adem slammed up against the wall as well, his brutish form providing more strength to pound the wall down. I started to focus, on strength, it was what we needed. My muscles started to bulge; I began to feel denser, stronger, and bigger. I was huge, I looked ridiculous, my every move felt concentrated, focused. I moved my arm it flew through the air.

"Whoa…" everyone was looking at me now.

"Err…ok…" said Shane in a cynical manner, I shrugged at everyone, my voice was deeper now. I pounded myself against the huge wall. It shivered at my touch, I was so much stronger now, but this didn't make any sense, I had yet to find something I couldn't lift in my original form, was this huge form really necessary?

"everyone on three" yelled Leigh

"one"

"Two"

"THREE" burst flame lit up over the wall. Kyle turned his staff into a massive stump, slamming it against the wall. Bladed feathers struck the wall together with light shards. And then, Leigh, Adem and I slammed against the wall. Cracks appeared down the side. And instantly the pieces fell off. And then the wall gave, surrendering under the force of our will. Revealed to us was the corridor that lead too that weird nightclub, but now for some reason, there was no sound, no life I could sense, I could sense life, distant and beyond, but not from the nightclub, everyone had reverted to their normal forms, with the exception of Carissa who was still coated in her laser-like armour we walked down the curious red steps, my heart skipping beats in anticipation. Nikki looked around the weird gothic style architecture

"This place is really weird" proclaimed nikki as our footsteps thundered along in the massive vacant hallway.

"Try sleeping here…" replied katlin Linda shuddered in reply

"It's so cold, and creepy here…" I rolled my eyes

Girls.

"This place sure is interesting Navar Keelan, who would of thought such a place would exist" Adem remarked as we entered the area that was once a night club, it was totally empty, as if people were never here. I walked around. Kyle pulling his stick into his grip, its eerie purple glow, giving him a weird look

"This is a little creepy, looks like it used to be some sort of a night club" we were still slowly edging forward

"It was Kyle" remarked katlin as she spun a dagger of light around one of her fingers Kyle brushed his free hand through his hair

THAT hair

And then there it was. The doors that lead to the main hall, the huge wooden doors that must have been at least three meters tall.

"Those are some big doors…" remarked Shane as we stumbled up to them. I jumped in front of everybody

"Ok guys, this is it, beyond here is the main hall of the organization…I just wanted to say TO ALL OF YOU, thank you, thank you for your support, and it may get really hairy in there, but I believe in all of you guys, and well. Thanks guys" there was a clamour of voices. And Kyle came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder

"Whatever's in there Navar, we know its important to you, and that's all that matters to us, and besides, don't worry about us, we can handle ourselves." I nodded to Kyle, and indeed everyone else seemed to replicate Kyle's sentiments. Curiously most of them seemed excited. And I guess, Kyle was right, they could all handle themselves, we were the strongest group of godsents I had ever seen, and all that remained now was to test our mettle. I pushed the massive doors open, I think had I not been super strong this would be impossible the hallway that lead to the main hall it was different, and it was adorned with pictures of undiscernible people, the red carpet made noise upon out traversing over it. the place felt different

lived in

I turned to katlin

"Does this feel different to you?" she looked around the wall as she threw a shard to land next to a picture

"Yeah it does, what gives?" I shrugged

"What was it like before?" asked Linda I wasn't quite sure who too, but I answered anyway

"I dunno just more… distant, less personal kind of" Linda screwed up her face in an indifferent way and simply replied

"oh" then there it was the main hall, I could feel life emanating from each of its corners. We all piled in, everybody seemed to be as on edge as I was; my stomach a mix of desperation, and anxiety. The main hall was different as well, the ceiling was covered in red banners; there were rows of red carpet along the floor. There was a row of reavers standing obediently in a row and beyond that, where there was once a simple stage. Was now a throne.

A throne?

What the hell was going on? In the majestic chair sat sephillius, he couldn't seem to counter his own satisfaction of where he was sitting, in the chairs beside him sat the others, in less impressive chairs, sat sin, frost, cancer, pestilence and the crow retrospectively. What the hell was going on?

The reaper noticed us, and more importantly me. he stood up, his finger pointing in my direction

"YOU" I put my costume back up, tentacles sprouting from my back

"Me…" sephillius looked at me shocked, until he disappeared in a puff of black mist instantly appearing in front of me

"Brought me more lambs to the slaughter have you boy? Good job!" I looked at him with a hint of disbelief; surely his pride didn't blind him this much?

"No…its over sephillius, I know everything, and its over!" he took a few steps back and looked at me with an expression that was pretty much indescribable. He pushed his hair back a bit, until he just started laughing, at first it was a low laugh, but it grew into something so much larger, until it boomed around the auditorium itself. he smiled at me. still laughing a little

"Sephillius, sephillius, Sephillus….Seth e Roth, is dead son! Sure the body exists, but that person was a life time ago, its just like your friend up there, or at least he was once your friend, you see. He's not Ronald plat anymore, he's mine, and mine to control, he is my sin, and just like everything else you see here, its all mine to control." There was a couple of sounds from the back, I wasn't sure if it was due to the fact of sephillius's delusions or the fact that some of them had just spotted the person that used to be Ronny, looming in his black cloak, silent and distant. At least I finally think I understood something, in my absence there had appeared to be some kind of uprising, resulting in the reaper taking control of the organization, this was even worse; now he really did have all the resources he needed.

"You can't fully control anyone…nobody has that right! I don't care what's happened, but I'm here to stop you! You will not succeed!" Sephillus widened his arms in a gloating manner.

"Oh how very valiant of you, and tell me child, why can I not sense my taint upon you?" I looked at him with a determined face, reminding myself how much I hated that shadow

"I got rid of it!" he laughed and coughed at the same time, I think he was a bit shocked at my statement

"One does not simply, get rid of the taint? Its impossible! Your lying" I reverted my arm enough to show him the web tattoo the taint had left upon me

"See for yourself…" he looked at the mark for sometime. His face awash with anger, until it reverted back to his smiling visage

"enough of your drolling monologues of valency…and btw; your father isn't going to last much longer" my mind recoiled, how did he know about my father; he wasn't telling me everything, somehow he knew who I truly was, probably way more than I did.

"Hey wait! You know something tell me!" he smiled at me sweetly and clicked his fingers

"REAVERS!" and he disappeared into a puff of smoke and appeared back on his throne reavers began to flow through every door possible, the whole hall was full of them, they were everywhere. I took a deep breath

it was about to begin

this is the part where my stomach burns and everything in my body is denied save the urge to kill these things, these demons, and these reavers.

But it didn't

That must have been part of the shadow's influence, but deep down, it still burnt…I could feel the desire, and the hatred for these beings. For once I needed this savagery, I needed to go berserk, and a small part of me A VERY SMALL PART OF ME almost wished I had my shadow virus, just to find out what would have happened if I had let myself loose on these guys instead of holding back the urge. I tried to feel that little bit inside me, let it consume me. My blood suit sprouted more tentacles. I turned around to everybody, my blood was boiling with the fever of battle.

"guys…this is it" my voice sounded different, more high pitched than usual, it was a little scary, scarier than usual. Everybody seemed tense and then before I knew it, we had begun. I delved into the fever pitch that was encapsulating my body, it was intoxicating, and it compelled me. I looked to my left. Seven reavers instantly burst into flame, with the letters R-O-T-H-K-I-N spelt on them, it was a little bit too theatrical for my taste. Nevertheless I delved even more into the fever I flew at two reavers, my body revelling in the sheer thrill of the chance to hurt them. Tentacles from my back flew out to several more, pulling them into the air to hit each other before landing again. I sent out snares of my own, throwing them every which way, I needed to get to the lab where my father was being kept, what did the reaper mean by my fathers time was running out?

It was always time.

These things, they were everywhere, they were encapsulating everything, these burly men, who all looked identical underneath there hoods, swelled from every edge of the main hall. they were everywhere. From all corners flew reavers into the walls, into spikes on the wall. Large tentacles whipped and threw them into the sky. patches of heat and chilling ice could be felt from my right. And yet, they just kept coming. Again and again. Like we were not defeating at least ten every minute. I pushed myself harder. Never before have I delved so much into my sense of violence and battle, it was intense, my body was starting to move faster than my legs, as my torso stretched out further, my hands slicing everything out of my path, the fringes of my senses being attacked from every angle with spiked tentacles. Everything was violence. Stabbing, wrenching, and throwing. I leapt forward into another reaver, quickly pulling my bladed hands out its odd stomach, so I was ready to defend myself from another, when over everything, over the battle, and all the noise it was making; I heard Kyle

"GUYS JUMP!" I didn't need to be told twice, I flipped backward off a reaver, landing on the shoulders of another one, quickly kicking off and snaring myself so I ended up adhered to the roof far above. The battle was going intensely, but It was still looking like we hadn't changed anything. Shane had a wide circle of space from where he was burning reavers, a solid mass of charred remains in its wake. He did something curious I had never seen him do before as well. Leaping onto a reaver, using his odd silver like rapier sword to fend of the others, he put his hands in a weird drawing pose and literally sucked what seemed like the heat out of one of the reavers. It left an icy remains amount the already burnt ice remains, what an odd combination of things, searing heat and icy remains, it made very little sense. But I was soon affronted to my reason for jumping. As everybody did at almost the same time, Kyle sweeping his staff around in a clear circle for space. Flipped sideways and then backwards so he was doing a handstand on his staff which quickly erupted with purple lightning, enveloping hundreds of reavers in its fury, arcing between all of them., the sound turned down another wave. Kyle flipping himself over surveying his impressive wake of bodies, only now did it look like we were making a difference. Linda and Carissa who were seeming fighting together looked rather interesting, Carissa apparently had some sort of wrist mounted blaster she was using to fend them off as Linda threw and contorted as many bodies as she could wrap around. Shane decided to join Kyle, and they quickly rose to compliment each others abilities, Kyle hitting and flipping at least fifty reavers a minute moving them in position to be brutally flamed by Shane, unto which frost would begin to rise from there charred remains. On the other hand of the battle, Leigh and Adem seemed to be helping each other, their powers being generally similar, it was a more close quarters battle, however not discounting the ferocity of there attacks, I would probably rather choose to fight someone else. Near the stage to the right was katlin and Nikki who had seemingly been grouped together, projectiles were flying everywhere. Katlin, was swirling constantly using her light swords to slice anything coming even remotely her way, using her light discs to gain seemingly physically impossible acrobatic feats. Nikki was even more impressive, her six wings majestic and dangerous, as with katlin her feather projectiles were puncturing an innumerable amounts of reavers. Her wings slicing any reavers within their reach clean in half. My friends, sure were proving that they could indeed handle themselves and it was just as good, because I had things to do. I flipped down, landing in a mass of tentacles, which stabbed through at least ten reavers upon my landing. I sent at least ten ahead of me stabbing through enough to clear my way more forward. The fever starting to pick up again, I could feel my body changing into a more feral state

Good.

More and more they ripped in front of me, me; throwing them apart, faster, and faster my arms moved. More, I stabbed through more reavers, and with each stab, my fever picked up, my eyes coating ever red, my claws growing longer. My mouth being elongated. And my teeth growing sharper. But I had a goal, I didn't care about these changes, they were irrelevant. I flew more forward, lunging at more and more reavers as fast as I could. Finally my goal was in sight, at least some of it anyway I threw out webs against groups of reavers, adhering them to the walls, the snare becoming a part of whatever it was adhered too. I flipped over a group of about five reavers, noticing that the groups were at least begging to thin. I shot a large web-net out gripping about 10 plus reavers straight to the floor as the web began to resemble and odd mix of skin and rock. That took care of that group. I lunged forward again, simply throwing two from my path. Shooting two snares from my wrists, yanking myself forward towards the clear path, I flipped over shooting a massive web, behind me, the web cementing meaning nothing could get through, least right now. I ran down the hallway, feeling my legs move faster and faster with every pump. I couldn't sense anything along the corridors as I ran.

Time was running out

I pumped harder, using snares and tentacles to move me even faster.

Finally. I had made it too the lab. Its blue glow, shining like a beacon. I slammed through the door, my breathing sounding through the room. It was dark, except for my breathing. Suddenly a light flicked on. The room was drenched in a stale white light. Near the end of it was my father, the whole room had been torn apart, and not by seemingly human means, holes were in the wall, tables cleaved in half. The place was completely shambles. I moved my attention to where my father was, he was tied to a chair. Why was he tied to chair? Next to him, was a black clad person? His hair was shoulder length at the back and spiked out furiously, he wore a baggy black jumper with black pants. His hands semi-gloved as well. The person turned around to me, his eyes gleamed a deep furious crimson, his skin clear and pale, and his face angled, and he seemed to reek of anger. That's not to say that I wasn't pretty annoyed by now as well, the fever inside me was ebbing away, but it was still there. My suit providing me with more intimidation than I could ever muster, I faced him with a fierce determination.

"Who the hell are you, and get away from my father" the boy twisted his face into something that was supposed to resemble a smile, but came more off like a snarl. He pointed to the broken tube, the one I had seen earlier.

'Project Raven" I looked at him, to his curious eyes.

"Project raven…" he nodded his head

"The one and only…." His voice sounded new, and yet innocently evil, 'innocently evil'' the thing was a contradiction within itself. I looked at him, I couldn't mouth any words, it just didn't seem to make sense, somehow my father who before seemingly couldn't speak, now had the ability to do so.

"I told you not to come back…" I stepped forward a couple of steps, drawing the distance to me and project raven shorter

"Coz you so obviously don't need my help" he looked at me, his eyes showing deep remorse

"Don't you understand…he knew, he knew who you were all along, you were always a part of his plans!" I looked at him, what did he mean? I knew I was an integral part of the plans of the organization, but to be a part of the reapers actual personal plans seemed ludicrous. Project raven snapped at my father

"Enough out of you!" my father was seemingly unable to talk again. I moved closer to the fiend, For some reason, or another, the visage of this boy scared me. he turned to me placing me in front of my father. Almost instantly I couldn't move

"So technically I should be calling you brother shouldn't I?" I looked at him, confused. I was so sick of being confused

"What, why?" he laughed and pointed to my father, who was seemingly gagged by absolutely nothing. But then here I was 'seemingly' unable to move, this kid, whatever he was, was powerful

"Well, because, a part of us shares the same blood, I was made from your fathers dna, in an attempt to recreate yours. Naturally, I am your superior…brother" my mind flashed to my friends. How were they faring? This was all my mind was focused on, for the last hours, and now my mind was flashing back to my friends. I shook off whatever was binding me into place. And stepped forward, I needed to save my father. The boy looked at me and smiled serenely

"Opps, gotta go…" and he just disappeared. I looked around the room, and then too nowhere

"O…k" I moved to my father, my blood suit reverting. I kneeled down to him and untied his feet

"Are you ok?" my father pushed me past and looked at me angrily

"I TOLD YOU NOT TOO COME BACK!" I looked at him

"I wasn't about to let you sacrifice yourself for me…" he looked at me hurt

"And why not, shouldn't a father have that right?" I looked at him, my face screwed up tightly

"NOBODY, haves that right! I will not let anyone sacrifice themselves for my life, I don't deserve that, my life isn't that symbolic" my father sunk himself into his seat again, just staring at me for a while, quietly, not saying anything

"What was that thing…." He wasn't saying it to me, hell he would know more than I would. I just screwed up my face, and looked towards the exit. My father got up and pushed his hair out of his face, I looked towards him and kind of replicated what he had just said.

"What WAS that thing?" he looked at me rather weakly.

"I suppose, technically, he IS your brother, least on a basic genetic level." I looked at him awe struck

"So I have a brother?" my fathers face seemed to emulate mine, he had a hopelessness sort of reasoning

"I…guess so, Project raven is the first of the so called reavers, except, we did two things wrong, we tried to design something too strong, too extraordinary; the process failed simply there, it wasn't possible, and they tried to replicate your dna with my own, I hadn't know why at the time, simply figuring it was another torturous way, to make my life a miserable hell. I pushed my fingers through my hair, I needed to do something with my hands, I couldn't think of anything else

"This is insane" my father looked at me even more until something clicked over in his brain and he grabbed my arm, the one with the scar on it, the black web that was sprawled over my wrist. His face lipped in horror

"Oh dear…" I looked at my father, honestly sometimes he was so beyond my heritage

"What?" I asked him, half not caring what the answer was, in all honesty everything was boiling down to time, how much longer could my friends hold out without me? he looked towards the mark

"That is your mark, your taint of the shadow virus" I looked at him

"And?" he stared at me and sized me up, getting rather annoyed that I didn't seem to be getting the scope of severity of the situation

"You had a pure dose, it was like I said, sephillius somehow knew about you the whole time, that girl that gave you it, was planted, purely for that purpose" I looked to my father

"Yeah, you told me, but it doesn't matter now does it, I got rid of the virus, and he planted that girl, that's seems…so extreme" my father looked towards me in even more shock

"You got rid of it?" I looked to him and nodded. I supposed by this point, the fact that the girl was planted purely to give me the shadow virus, was fairly irrelevant.

"Yeah, I don't know how, but I got rid of it" my father smiled, even if it was weakly, it was still a smile

"Amazing!" I looked towards him. I really needed to get back

"I have to go and help my friends, their probably in danger" he looked at me his glasses nearly falling off his face

"Oh god of course, Ile follow you, I think I have to get out of here as well. Do you think it will be safe for me to follow you?" I pulled my suit back up, still with its red lines, and black. Its cruel claws and mouth, I looked to him

"Who do you think I am?" he sighed to himself, a little sadness in his voice

"Honestly, I have no idea…"

"Navar, read this before you go" I looked towards him, he handed me a piece of paper that was about the generals projects, I looked at him a bit confused, surely there were better times then right now? But I read on; until I found it, it was a file about Ronny, about how he had come to be a general, the pain that spurred him to this decision. I put it to the back of my mind, and remembered it, this would help.

I was running, slowly enough so my father could still tail me, but running nevertheless. I finally made it to the main hall again. The battle was still raging but the reavers were being seriously thinned.

"Stay here" I mouthed to my father, as I phased through the webbing, man I hated doing that. There was no time for pleasantries, I jumped into the battle, tentacles flying quickly into two reavers until I flipped over. Kicking another one. from Shane and Kyle's corner of the battlefield I spied it looking odd. Shane was still flaming people with black flame, and using that sword to fend off the other ones, Kyle was leaping between the icicles that now rose almost meters out of the ground at some points. Using his vines to ensnare several reavers, and eviscerate them with bladed vines. The other battles seemed to be going along the same lines. Just losing more wind. Adem and Leigh were now using each other more then ever; grabbing onto Adem's tentacles to fly into the fray. Katlin and Nikki were just throwing rains of projectiles. I jumped dead into the centre of the battles. And stared directly at the generals, and of course the reaper, when suddenly the reavers stopped. In mid-action

"Stop!" the reaper yelled. And instantly the bodies, and the live ones. Disappeared in plumes of smoke.

"You snivelling little miscreants! How dare you ruin so many of my beautiful reavers" all my friends, my powerful friends joined me in the centre of the hall. sephillius's face no longer looking handsome, now contorted into something desperate in evil

"Generals!" and from aside him, the statuesque generals rose, and began to advance upon us on the field.

CHAPTER 28

From the shadows

The generals, the statuesque leaders or his supposed 'army of the future' their powers twisted and corrupted beyond normal means, with the help of the corrupting toxin known as the shadow virus. These twisted evil beings stood before us, they all wore the same expression of a sense of distance, there faces hollow, and yet so full of evil. Beyond them, behind them smiled a grinning reaper, the reaper. Sephillus Edward Roth, a boy once the pinnacle for the side of good, who now stood as a catalyst for a full out godsent war, oh and of course, there was us

"Nav what the hell are those guys?" said a very nervous Nikki as she stood next to me. I looked over her, my face probably wrought with the same anxiety, however I would imagine it would be hard to tell when I was wearing my blood suit.

"Generals, obviously" I turned around a little so I was facing everybody,

"Guys, there's seven of us, and only five of them, but don't let that get your confidence up, these guys are tough, keep your head up ok!" everyone nodded silently, they were all focused on the oncoming generals, I turned my attention to them as well. The leader was cancer, he cracked his neck and smiled

"Its about time we got to do something eh brothers?" a couple of them laughed until jade threw a shard of ice in the direction of cancer

"Brothers eh Quentin?" he snapped back quickly

"It was a figure of speech frost, now pay attention" jade, smiled wickedly, well that's to say it used to be jade, her face was frozen over with a distant evil

"How can I not, when my dear sister has come to join us, hello sister" everyone seemed so shock, that jade directed a comment directly at jade. Even more shocked however was nikki, she seemed horrified, her face awash with a weird mix of horror and disgust she cocked her head slightly to her left, two of her wings still stretched out and beating the air around her

"Jade?" jade flicked her icicle nails into the light and flicked her iced over hair out of her eyes, her breath emitting slight sings of frost.

"Nikki, nice to see you sister" Nikki stepped forward, her other wings now extended from her back, there odd shiny coat glistening somewhat as light refracted off them

"Jade…stop this…" her voice, had desperation in it, mustered all the love she could in one simple sentence, it was almost saddening, two sisters, facing each other, so different from what they were, years ago, when they would of spent there childhood memories no one dared to say anything, not even the generals, the moment was too fragile, drenched in suspense, it hanged on a thread, daring to be broken into a million of pieces. Jade stepped forward, past cancer so she was directly in front of nikki

"…stop this? Why? It so much fun!" shatter point. The suspense was broken, I could see something tick over in the mind of Nikki, and she finally got what I had yet to grasp the concept of. These people were unreachable. Nikki stepped back, and began to float off the ground,

" Whatever it takes sister, I'm going to bring you back to our parents, and our home" jade smiled and cracked her knuckles

"Good.." Pestilence twisted his face into a cruel smile

"Finally…" and before I even knew it had begun. We ran into each other, exactly like every movie I had ever seen where there's a big battle scene, a cliché among clichés but, it wasn't like we had a choice.

More violence.

Someone once said, not every problem should be solved with violence, but what do you do when it's the only option you're presented with? I flipped back, some tentacles sprouted from my back, springing me up into the air, and around into a graceful flip backwards. This sure was an intense battle. Pestilence had gone straight for Kyle. his face simply grinning menacingly; while Kyle circled him, nothing happening as of yet. Frost had managed to bypass nikki directly who was facing off against the crow, frost was battling against Shane, 'battling against' being a literal word. Shane was being slaughtered, his odd silver goo, snaking around his body, protecting the parts of his body that would be normally being stabbed by ice shards; that silver metal was amazing. The rest, were mostly dealing with sin

Ronny

He could of possibly be the most powerful general of them all, he was against four of us, FOUR OF US, and yet, he had yet to flinch, he just floated about the field, throwing a chain, or opening portals around there arms so they punched themselves, however something was different, it was as if he was holding back. I landed with my hands on the floor, in my usual spider sense. I tried to tap into that primal rage that was deep within me. But it was distant, too far away. No matter. I stuck my hands out, them turning into long blades, tentacles bit the air from my back. I faced my opponent. It was cancer. His bald head glistening in the light of the hall somewhat, I noticed for once the mark on his wrist, the tribal tattoo, shaped someone like red blood cells; I finally got it

The taint of the shadow virus. I looked down to mine, my black scar that resembled a web, taint indeed. I lunged at cancer, he dodged easily, and a little black mist marking where had once been. He simply placed his hand on my back, somehow bypassing all my tentacles. My back pulsated, then it burned, my whole existence burned, my tentacles retracted, my blades retracted, I curled up into a foetal position. My whole world was ringing. I could hear footsteps, just over the pain I could hear footsteps. I opened my eyes, only barely cancer kneeled near my head. And smiled

"Right now, you are experiencing the Ebola virus, supposedly the most painful disease known to man. Anyway…blood, I expected more." His footsteps were growing distant, I could see his large boots trail off from the slits in my eyes, I pushed myself to see how everyone else was faring. Not much better than me, Kyle was using his staff to send out barrages of bladed plant life towards pestilence, which was simply meeting a certain point, before whittling away and fading to dust. My brain remembered his power was to destroy organic matter containing chloroform, Kyle had no chance. Shane was faring the same, if not worse, still being barraged by ice shards, his silver liquid only narrowly protecting him. Water and ice, against fire? Shane had no chance either. The rest of the others, including crow, cancer and sin, had joined forces to combat the others, they too had no chance,

everybody seemed to be fighting against there exact opposites, easily allowing them to supersede us. I struggled, I stretched out my hand, no one was doing anything to help me, how could they? They were far to busy being slaughtered, my body awashed with more pain, breathing was all I could focus on now, I tried to retract into myself, escape from this pain, it had been such a long time since I had felt true pain, and not the suit pseudo indication of pain, the pain made me feel real, but it was too much, wish a simple touch and I was down, these generals truly were a force powerful enough to forge a new future.

The pain.

It was becoming to much, I felt something coming my way, and it had a large presence. I squeezed my eyes open, it was nikki. She had been thrown over here with a portal from sin; she noticed me and immediately turned her attention to me. She got down, her large wings drenching me in immense amounts of shadow. Then her hands appeared over to me she whispered to as to not draw the attention of the other

"You're lucky I've gotten better at this…" lights appeared from me, light, that was so full of everything that she was, everything that I loved, everything that filled me with hope. It pulsated through me, until the pain was becoming more distant, I could open my eyes, then the pain started to become less, until finally I could feel myself again. I got to my knees, and nikki relinquished her hands off me, herself looking quite tired from the experience. That odd feeling I had whenever I was in her presence began to wash over me instantly, that thing that was larger than love, bigger than admiration, like a sense I was better than myself. I turned to her when I felt brave enough to speak, I had only just noticed that I had reverted back into my human form, well as human as I was ever going to get

"I know this sounds…well corny, but well whenever I'm around you I get like this feeling, like my abilities are stronger or something" I could tell nikki was to distraught to be amused by me, but she stared at me, worry stained upon her face.

"Yeah, Carissa bought It up once, apparently its some sort of battle meditation thing, like If I trained it enough it would be enough to tip the sides of a war or something…listen you reckon your going to be ok?" I looked at her, half thinking, half shocked that she was already ready to drop me and get back into the fray, but then again, this was her sister we were talking about. I nodded silently, I tried to absorb as much of her presence as I could before her large powerful wings took her away from me. I stood up, my legs were still a bit woozy, but I was fine. It was my fault everyone was here, I needed to help them, and no one was going to sacrifice themselves for me

No one.

I was starting to feel worse like my body was drained of every bit of energy it ever had. My chest was itching, it started to glow a little. The same glow I sensed when I rid myself of the shadow virus, it filled me with its warmth. Instantly I was energized, I felt anew; better, I took a deep breath, no time like now. I clenched my fist my blood suit changing me instantly. I leapt into the fray, first things first, cancer. He smiled at me as he dodged again, with his super speed, leaving a wake of black mist. He stuck out his hand, his tribal tattoo flashing red upon the action. I flipped out the way shooting a snare from my wrist cementing his hand to the ground. I flipped back.

"Figured you had to touch someone to effect them" he clenched his face in anger, his face cavorted into something twisted and evil, that resembled something more like what he represented. He grunted at me, and turned towards sin, who was still being barraged by attacks from Adem and Leigh mostly

"A little help sin" the hooded figure, turned it head only slightly, and made no reference that he even heard cancer's remarks, however around his wrist appeared a portal, which broke him free of my snare. I grunted back

"Ronny…" cancer smiled back at me

"Still don't get it do you?' and he was right, I still refused that these people were lost too the shadow virus, I just couldn't grasp it. Cancer lunged at me again. I flipped back. I needed to fight differently, admittingly my usual fighting style was somewhat predictable, it was a balance of using tentacles to clear people out of my way, acrobatics, and bladed hands. But I couldn't fight like that right now, I needed to change, I couldn't let him touch me. I stared a glance at katlin and Nikki, who were both now squaring off against the crow who was flying with an odd amount of ease, leaving the same black mist in his wake. The girls stopping every now and again to clutch at their heads, I recalled that the crow had the ability to create delusions; obviously this was what was affecting them, but they were still fighting with projectiles, I needed projectiles. Cancer lunged at me again; I dodged to the left throwing a blood-red blade the size of a dagger towards him. It grazed his shoulder, which started to bleed silently. Cancer grunted at me even more, and ran towards me; I flipped over him, throwing two blades at him, grazing the sides of his stomach, near his kidneys. He grunted at me again. Cracking his neck,

"Your not going to recover next time!" I flipped onto the wall that was behind me.

"Your going to have to catch me first!" he slammed into frost. Who was still busy orchestrating the berating of Shane. She smiled to him, as if to show him how amused she was, but cancer grunted quickly

"A little help here" jade turned her attention to me. she grinned oddly and waved her free hand. Water pooled from my hands and feet, it started to spread up to my wrist and ankles. I had no time to act the water froze instantly, freezing me to the spot, and spiking through my wrists and ankles.

Cancer lunged at me, I couldn't move. I was still frozen. He was inches away from me when he was shot out of my trajectory by the combination of a fireball and a bladed cyclone of leaves. I jumped free on the embrace and flipped behind him. I forged a spear of hardened blood, it felt like a fusion of steel and blood. I through it with all my might, it pierced his back, blood instantly began to pool around the wound. Black mist smouldering from his exposed blood. He growled at me as he pulled the spear from his back, his face drenched with pain. I repeated the process, twice more. Until he finally seemed like he had enough, he screamed in pain. And disappeared in a plume of black mist, seconds later appearing back on his seat, apparently sleeping in a weird sort of hibernation, his wounds seemed to be healed, but he didn't seem to be paying any attention to anything, or if he was there, it was like he was a shell.

No time to contemplate it.

I needed to keep moving, I took another deep breath, and threw out some tentacles from my back, and it felt good to be me again. I turned to my attention to Kyle and Shane, Shane's face was light furiously in black flame, even through the flames I could see he was starting to get really angry. But he was starting to fight back, the metal had resumed its rapier like sword form, flame pluming out of it, he was using it to deflect the ice shards, slowly gaining footing against jade, Kyle was begging to use his speed as an advantage against pestilence, but still he managed to dodge with that mysterious black mist. I yelled out to them as I was running forward, my wings were outstretching,

"Guys….SWITCH!" Shane had just opened two mini cyclones of black flame, which was draining the moisture from the air. But they both seemed to agree with me and were slowly trying to switch assailants. I jumped into the air, barely giving time for my wings to work. I pushed off, I could feel my body switching into its lighter air-friendly mode. I flew faster, and faster, straight into the crow. Together we flew straight into the ground. Him cushioning my fall, I bounced off and bladed my hands, ready to lunge, the crow got up, his one spiked fringe covering one of his eyes, he grinned to me, and suddenly my reality was warped. I was there, but it was if I was watching from afar. It was a weird confronting sort of feeling that I couldn't shake it off. From in front of me, an ice shard penetrated nikki's chest, I turned around me, all my friends were being defeated, and killed brutally, my heart sunk, I lost all my feeling as I sunk deep into despair. It was so surreal, finally something flickered inside me, a gleam of hope, and I pulled my hands up to my head

"This isn't real" the words seemed to act like a trigger, my reality warped back to its usual self. I took a deep breath, I noticed I was myself again, my blood suit and wings had since retracted. The crow looked at me and simply muttered

"damn…" I scrunched up my face in anger, quickly pulling my suit back up. but it was too late, the crow was assaulted in a hail or light shards and bladed feathers he was grazed, over nearly ever inch of his body, he fell to the ground. Reality around him vibrating weirdly. His blood evaporating into black mist as it hit the ground

"Damn…" and he repeated the same process that cancer did. Katlin and nikki seemed quite pleased that they managed to subdue him, and quickly turned their attention onto sin, who was still handling all of his assailants with ease. I turned my attention to Shane and Kyle, who had indeed switched assailants, Kyle had several grazes and cuts from his body. His forehead was bleeding a little, and he looked rather tired, he gripped his staff firmly shooting out tentacles to whip out the icicles jade was creating however, it was becoming increasingly difficult for her because Shane's flames whirlwinds were still dragging out the moisture in the air. Over on Shane's side it was going rather better. However pestilence was using the opposite of his power using a seedling he drew from his pocket, he had a bladed piece of plant that was growing around his wrist. Which he was using to combat Shane's sword, but it was a impossible task. Shane was toying with him, flaming small parts of his body, leaving them frost bitten, until Shane span around ducking under the swooping arm of pestilence. And stabbed through the side of his torso. The wound cauterising instantly. He fell to the ground. To his knees, his hair falling over his face.

"Fuck" and the process repeated itself. now all that's left was frost and sin, but more importantly, the only two people we really knew. Ronny and jade. I Ran up to everybody that was fighting sin, and it was a lot, when suddenly from the roof, light amounts of water were starting to fall. This was bad. Kyle as already starting to lose his footing. I turned to everyone as they noticed me. they were all bruised, and some had many cuts on there bodies. I turned to them and pointed to Shane and Kyle who were both starting to lose there footing. I couldn't understand why Shane simply couldn't melt the ice, but for some reason he didn't seem able to

"Everyone, go help Shane and Kyle! I will take care of sin" they all looked at me and nodded as they rushed towards frost. Leigh muttered to me; still in his demonic form

"Good luck, he's bloody tough" I cracked my neck and reverted my blood suit, it wasn't going to help in this battle, and as a matter of a fact, when did it help? The black figure that was sin faced me. The red eyes glowing at me full of menace. I talked slowly and full of meaning

"Ronny, its nav" I refused to believe he was un-reachable, I knew he was holding back, he could just open a portal around our necks and be done with it. still the being simply stared at me, floating around. Me in a circle as I circled him, his cloak was black, and had chains hanging on it at some point, the hood over his face it was hard to even tell if he was even there. I tried again, I needed a sign that there was a human there. I jumped forward, just clipping his hood of before he went intangible, a portal appeared before me, and I could not do anything but slide in, instantly everything felt compressed, my body felt like it was a tenth of its size, and compressed into such a density I felt like I was impossible. And then a light appeared before me, I felt like I had been in that black vortex for a million years. The ground appeared before me and I slammed into it hard. It didn't matter, I was back to my notions of pain. I sprang up and pushed some of my hair out of my face.

"Ronny!" his face turned to me. his face was distant and expressionless, and his eyes flowed with red energy. But his face turned to me, I looked towards jade, she was losing the battle fast. Linda was standing on the sidelines guiding the ice shards back into jade. She was just being completely overwhelmed however. I turned my attention to Ronny, I tried to show my empathic side, not that it was generally a different side, and I tended to always be emphatic

"I know why you're there Ronny" he was facing me now, his arm raised slightly as if trying to consider wether to attack me or not.

I continued.

"I know you're here because of the pain" a chain flew past me; I suspected that It was never really intended to hit me. Just him lashing out, or so I hoped

"No matter what the circumstances, your parents will always love you Ronny!" his face finally washed with the first amount of expression I had seen, he yelled at me, his voice gruffer and lower

"Shut up!" another chain flew past me. I didn't blink an eye, I simply stepped forward more

"Look you can't be a hero, people make mistakes Ronny! And you have to remember that your parents will always remember that, and besides there was nothing could do, by simply living you have made your parents proud that they have a legacy to carry on for them" his face was lighting up with even more emotion now, colour was starting to return to his face. I continued

"What do you think your parents are thinking about right now that there son has turned to a life of evil, do you think they will be proud?." Sin gasped, and finally I noticed Ronny behind the mask of un-expression. He got to his knees and gasped. The cloak flashing on and off as if was an illusion, I walked closer to him

"Ronny?" the cloak was still flashing on and off, until it finally disappeared, revealing Ronny to be wearing black slacks, white shirt, with a black un buttoned shirt over the top, his hair was the same as it was pushed over the front of his face. He looked up to me, his face looked wrought with tiredness like he hadn't slept for years, and he coughed

"nav?" I smiled to him as I bent down, beyond him I noticed jade repeating the same process as the rest.

"Ronny…" he looked up and sat up. brushing his hair out. He looked at me

"This is all wrong…" I looked at him as my friends noticed that Ronny had since returned, I stared back up to the reaper, he was still smiling. When right next of him, from a crimson aura, appeared project raven, he smiled at us, the same stupid grin as The Reaper, when suddenly the generals began to move as if they were alive

I sighed back to Ronny

"This IS all wrong"

CHAPTER 29

On wings of black.

This was it, this is what it all came down too.

Violence

My grand plan to save everybody, and all the world of a potential threat of genocide; and yet somehow it had all gone to shit. Here I was, with my friends, standing against seemingly insurmountable odds, against a bunch of super powered godsents, who couldn't be put down permeantly. Everyone looked battered and bruised; Carissa had passed out near a wall somewhere on the fringes of this massive gothic hall. she was human after all, and she gave a good effort. Shane was bleeding down his forearm, Kyle's tail had a bit of a tuft taken out of it, and some scrapes on his forehead, Leigh and Adem were still in their transformations states and were unharmed, but looked as about as exhausted as I felt. The only person still full of energy was katlin, who looked like she had only joined the battle, if it wasn't for the fact that her leather suit was cut at numerous places. But again, that weird battle meditation of nikki's seemed to keep us going, out of all us, she seemed to be doing the best, as if she was actually glowing. I took a deep breath and looked over to Shane who was standing next to me.

"Oh man I don't think I can do that again" Shane looked over me, his black flame burning the air with its frosty sense.

" I know what you mean, these guys are tougher than anybody else we've fought before hey" I took a deep breath and nodded to him. I looked past Shane, too Kyle. who had attached his stick to his back, and had sprouted vine like tentacles from his back, much like I would usually do. I almost laughed, if I wasn't for the direness of the situation I looked up to the roof, just for a distraction. It was cold, I had only just noticed it was actually quite cold, I looked around the battle field, and there was where Shane and Kyle were fighting before, where tower icicles stood from the ground. And then from Shane rose cold mist, I guess it was no surprise that it was cold, but it felt like a different sort of cold, a cold in my soul, something like terror. I ran my hands through my hair and took a deep breath.

I couldn't handle much more of this.

Sephillus cracked his knuckles and smiled at me, however strangely keeping most of his attention on nikki for some reason. I pushed it past my mind, it was probably just him being a freak. I looked to his left, where project raven stood. Reaper gestured to him, and raven clenched his hands, obviously concentrating on something. That red aura wafting around him, started to increase in intensity, until all around us, loud cracks emanated around the large main hall, suddenly when the bright flashes of red subsided, we were surrounded by reavers, totally surrounded. I looked around at everybody else, I guessed they had the same look of desperation I had on my face. This was way over our heads, we had already fought an unending supply of reavers once, then the generals, which we basically only just survived. And now, we had to face both, this was impossible. It was possible, that this terror I was feeling, was the chance that we weren't going to make it out of here alive, for some reason I had never looked at that possibility, for once in my life I only envisioned success; and it ended up as a failure, well, I know this for once, no one was going to die if I had something to say about it.

No one!

I clenched my fist and brought up my blood suit, I was going to need its strength. The reaper smiled and stepped down as he gestured towards the his generals as they happily followed his gestures, everyone was looking around the room frantically, this was a hopeless situation, from behind me I heard rattling. Rattling of chains. All of us turned around, it was Ronny, he had a determined look on his face, and he twirled two chains from each of his retrospective hands. He pushed in between Shane and myself. his face full of absolute resolution.

"I'm going to help…" I looked around at him, it was clear that his whole body seem exhausted

"Do you think that's a good-"he stooped me there as he brushed me off

"IM going to help!" I sighed; it was fairly obvious he wasn't changing his mind any time soon. Shane turned to him, as he pulled out his sword, I heard him muttering about needing the strength of iblis, until he turned to Ronny and smiled, his black flame only just pluming out now

"Good to have you Ron" the tension of the room, reached almost unbearable, I wanted to try and break it myself, and I couldn't take it. the generals smiled at us, most of them looking at Ronnie with a traitorous look. Then with a loud click, the reaper disappeared in a puff of smoke, resuming his spot on the stage, smiling at us all the while. I took a deep breath, when I heard a loud yell from Shane

"Lets do this then!" and his attitude seemed to be replicated on everyone's faces, I haven't seen people fight so intensely, nikki was cutting reavers left right and centre with her wings put flat, so they worked like large blades, I had to start focusing myself. when time seemed to turn surreal again, I first thought it was the crow, but it didn't come with the weird feeling in the back of my head. But then it appeared to me, it was raven, his crimson eyes stared directly at me, his smile beckoned rather sharp teeth, as his long spiky black hair flowed out.

"Hello big brother…" I looked at him, as I grew tentacles from my back; they snaked through the air ominously

"Don't call me that…" he smiled a little until a reaver got to close too him, he put up his hand, and clenched it ever so slightly, the body of the reaver stretching out and into an in human spiral before appearing into nothing. I looked at him, and I couldn't help by gasp something from my stupid mouth

"God…" raven looked at me. and smiled as he stared to the ground slowly lifting his head up to face me

"God has nothing to do with it!" he pulled his hand towards me, one of my tentacles following suit, dragging me unwittingly closer to him.

" So big brother, ready to join the family yet" I closed my face in concentration sinking every free tentacle straight through raven as I flipped over.

"Your not part of my family, your just, I don't know what you are" raven laughed again until he opened his hands wide, floating us up a little

"your friends are all going to die you know…" I looked around at them, time around raven, still moving somewhat slower than usual, as if looking through an hourglass. I looked over too Ronny who was fighting with all his heart. He was spinning around taking out legions of reavers with him. Phasing through the ones that got too close to him and surprising them with a back attack, around him every now and again, it was a seemingly flash of black, as his cloak had come back up, his eyes glowing a faint more red, with every attack, Shane had frozen bodies around him, but was still fighting mostly with his sword. I couldn't see any of the generals, and worse more, I couldn't see anyone else but Shane and Ronny. Raven smiled at me. As he let both of us drift back down. He smiled again, the red aura he always had around him, drifting around him a little more furiously

"What do you say big brother?" I looked at him, I was angry at this guy, he was playing games with me, when my friends could be dying. I yelled at him now

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!" he stared at me now, his face full of anguish that seemed so oddly place

"I'm trying to help you here big brother, you don't understand it do you, everybody here is doomed, and I'm trying to give you a chance to survive here!" I looked at him, I was a bit confused. I said it quietly, with deliberation

"Get out of my way…" raven's face clenched up with anger, his red aura started flowing furiously from out of him

"Fine, so be it!" when suddenly there was a loud explosion, from the exit of the main hall back to the dorms, I looked over; they were godsents, all of the ones that had lost in the battles. To the left of them I heard a loud bird shrill, as several reavers got set on fire. It was darius. I noticed Hiro as well; however they both looked amazingly exhausted

Where had they been? Why did they look so haggard, then from the distance I saw someone trying to fade out into the background, it was dad, he must of seen we were in trouble. Good. The army of godsents were filing into the battle, taking down reavers so there numbers were thinning, and I took this chance to take some battle ground, and instantly flipped out of the way so raven couldn't notice. I landed next to Ronny, from over the battle. I could now see nikki, she was so beautiful, and yet again, almost glowing. Her wings cutting and slicing with every turn, katlin was beyond her, hacking into reavers with huge leaps, yet again her being the only one still not void of all bits of energy. I stared up the stage as Ronny joined me he retracted his chains, and looked at me holding me on the shoulder purposefully when a reaver lunged at us, the reaver went straight through us, landing on to another reaver somewhere to the left of us, and I turned to Ronny

"Dude that was weird" Ronny shrugged as he shot a chain at a reaver coming to us

"You get used to it" the chain snared straight back. When I noticed another loud crack as raven had appeared next to the reaper, they whispered something into each others ears, and then nodded to each other. Raven concentrated, everything stood still, statuesque, I tried to move, and I myself was stuck as well. The reaper started to walk forwards through the frozen crowd, straight to me; I was so annoyed at always being the one targeted. I heard sephillius murmur something, seemingly to himself

"Arthur, its time" Arthur, what did he have to do with all this. But then seemingly from force of will appeared Arthur bennet, his smile did not fade when he saw me; he simply walked up to me with purpose. As he laughed quietly to himself. He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled

"There was so much promise with you son" raven and sephillius joined him, all of them crowded around him. Arthur turned his attention to Sephillus

"Feels good doesn't it?" Sephillus smiled handsomely until he clapped Arthur on his back,

"Indeed it does, indeed it does" I tried to see if my mouth worked it did, I spat out at them in anger, especially Arthur, how dare he use his children like this, seeing there lives callously thrown away

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" they all looked at me oddly surprised, Arthur walked up to me, placing his hand on my cheek, in a vain attempt at affection

"You? Who ever said we wanted you? Besides your glorious blood, we have no other use for you my boy" I looked at them, my mind was spinning, how was this not about me, the files on me, all their plans to date had something to do with me, it was the legacy of my blood that's carried this company into its new era, and here I am being feigned away like a pawn in a game of chess. I was slightly turned so I could see behind me pretty well, well at least the side of me, now I saw what they were really walking up too. It wasn't me, it was nikki. Probably simply so his father could gloat in his own evil. Arthur smiled and walked up to his daughter.

"My darling daughter" Nikki was scared, her voice was shaken and abrasive  
"D-daddy…" I heard Sephillus crack his neck over the silence, as he smiled. Arthur pulled out a hand and put in on his daughters cheek, I looked over to where jade was, her eyes seemed somewhat envious. he smiled as he stroke his daughter's cheek, until he turned to the reaper

"Sephillius…" the reaper pulled off his glove, his hand was normal for just a second until he clenched his fist and instantly his hand turned black and pointed, it was grotesque and rotting, funny how I thought this suited his personality then the fake disguise of humanity he wore. He placed his hand on Nikki's chest; black mist began to pour out of his hand flowing all over her body. I tried to fight these restrains; I tried everything I could do. I yelled, I fought, and I attacked these invisible restraints. But nothing was happening. Nikki's body was changing slowly until suddenly sephillius let go, he stumbled to the ground, apparently it took a lot of energy away from him, raven stared to me, his eyes full of glee. Nikki stumbled free of her invisible restraints fighting something invisible that wasn't there, as if she was being attacked by hundreds of invisible snakes she yelled out in pain, her wings stretched out into the air in there fullest, contorting themselves into vicious black wings, her hair grew longer and black. Her fingers grew more clawed, I tried to fight my restraints, what was happening, what could possibly be happening to my beautiful nikki. She rose to the air, her other wings repeating the process, and there she floated, black mist smouldering off her in every direction, she had changed, into a demonic looking angel. I tried to fight more and more. But I still couldn't, raven picked up Sephillus and helped him stand up, nikki was still floating there with a glazed over look as if she was distant as well, her six wings spreading out so she almost looked like a star. A black star. Sephillus looked over to Arthur, who had his fingers pursed together

"Excellent…" I fought harder and harder. There was a flicker of budge in my invisible restraints. I pushed more, finally something. I pushed more

more.

More

Until I was free, raven stared over to me, but didn't do anything; I think he was enjoying the idea of me being seemingly trapped in a bigger cage. I jumped as fast as I could seemingly towards nikki, until I struck out a snare to the left of me swinging straight into raven, I used all the force I could muster to strike a fatal blow, somehow I just knew he was linked to the invisible reins, somehow he must of just resigned a bit of his subconscious to keeping us ensnared, but he still didn't try to stop me before. But I struck his head with my foot, and instantly it seemed like everyone was freed. The battle began to rage around us. Sephillus rolled out from the subconscious raven. And growled at me. He struck out his hand, thrusting an immense amount of black force, I was thrown half way over the room, landing somewhere near katlin. She was still looking energised as usual. She looked at me, as she jumped over another godsent, who had short hair, and looked like a girl, but it was kind of hard to tell. She seemed to have super strength, but her body was covered in blotchy black bruises. I had no idea what they were. Though katlin looked to me

"What the hell happened to Nikki!?" I looked at her; my body was filled with terror. I just looked at katlin

"I don't know…but I need to get to her…something's' terribly wrong!" Katlin's face was filled with worry

"I know what you mean, nav come here" I looked at her a bit weirdly, what did she want? She placed her hand on my chest, and suddenly it burst with energy, I instantly felt like I could run a mile I looked at her, but I noticed I was already running towards nikki.

"Thanks…" I said as I ran towards Nikki. I noticed Kyle orchestrating vines to attack everybody that came to him, as if was a sort of concert. I kept running, I needed to by nikki's side, how could this all be about her? It seemed so unreal, so out of this world? Was this another one of crow's delusions? Just then I tripped over something feathery I looked down, it had iced over parts all over his body, it looked like Shane's work, either way, the crow was unconscious, which was almost a bad thing, because I was kind of hoping this was all a delusion. Nikki was still floating in the air, black mist pluming into her, all around her reavers were dying, even a couple of the godsents that had come to help us. Sephillus and Arthur just stood staring at her awestruck I noticed Arthur mumble something to Sephillus

"She's just beautiful isn't she?" Sephillus was only now just working on putting his glove back. and he simply smiled at him, he still seemed rather exhausted

"Its only temporary for the moment Arthur, we need to administer the permanent serum" Arthur didn't seem to notice, he just stood as his daughter was slowly decaying everything around her, like she was outwardly sending death to everybody. I yelled out to Arthur, I hated this man so much

"What the hell is this?" Arthur looked to me, and smiled

"simply, the answer" answered Arthur as Sephillus took a deep breath. I stared back at the two blankly.

"…the answer?" Arthur seemed to be delighted in the ability to monologue in his brilliantly laid plan, however sephillius didn't seem like the type to monologue. He grabbed Arthur on the shoulder

"Must you…" Arthur smiled back at Sephillus

"Oh please we both have some sort of history with the boy, but do we need to tell him everything" pleaded Sephillus to Arthur, Arthur sighed and then smiled to me

"Sephillus, this boy clearly loves my daughter, he deserves and exclamation" Sephillus grunted and gestured his hand towards raven, who disappeared back onto the stage, Sephillus held out his hand as if holding a sword, suddenly a sword, longer than a meter, but somewhat resembling a katana. He grunted to the crowd

"My beautiful soldiers…turned on me!" he yelled out in anger as he flew forward slicing everything in his way. It was actually rather beautiful, in a ferocious sort of way, his skill with the sword seemed to be unmatched, and the way he handled himself in battle held so much mastery and control. I turned back to Arthur, I couldn't control my rage. I struck out two tentacles picking him up at the shoulders, I clenched my fists, stabbing myself in my palm, its all I could do to control myself from killing him right there. He pushed something on his pocket, and it beeped, a shock sent through my tentacles and I suddenly lost control over them, I couldn't grip him anymore, I didn't care any more, I growled at him some more

"What do you mean answers!" he looked up to her, admiring her, as if like a prized possession. He stared to me

"Death…" I looked around, in the wake of nikki, and sure enough, death was all around her, it was growing like a plague I was worried now, what had they turned nikki into. Arthur continued

"It was the constant conundrum of the godsents, there have been so many beautiful children, with so many beautiful powers, yet not one, not one could simply cause death. I was just shocked. I couldn't believe what he was talking about, using his daughter as a tool of death. I looked around, there were so many people left. But it was significantly less than before. I noticed Shane, Kyle and Ronny squaring off against the reaper, the three worked in perfect synch. I looked behind me, pestilence and cancer was on their thrones in their weird hibernation. I walked closer to Arthur

"How can you do this to your daughter!?" he laughed and he looked up to the black star that was Nikki

"Admittingly it was a bit of a chance, but the whole plan was for her, we needed to see if the shadow virus would reverse her powers, look at her, she's so beautiful" I was getting sick. I moved forward to attack him, but he simply touched something on his wrist. Appearing back on the stage staring admirably at his daughter. I turned around, there was nothing left but most of my friends, we all joined ourselves near the exit, we couldn't take anymore of this, everyone was drowned in wounds. There were a few stragglers of the godsents that decided to help us out, I was so grateful of them. Elijah came to join me and Ronny, Elijah looked the worst of all of us, something black was slinking around him.

We looked up to the stage, just as Nikki fell to the ground in a winged heap. I ran to her but there was nothing I could do. I stared up to stage as Sephillus withdrew something from his pocket it looked like a phial of something, it emanated evil and terror. Arthur stared to Sephillus

"Time to make this permanent"

CHAPTER 30

A true hero

How could it have come to this? Was this really a perfectly set plan all along? Did they know that I was bound to eventually try and do something about the rise in crime and the disappearances of the godsents? Was I that predictable? No I couldn't be, no one could know me that well, there had to be some sort of element of chance here no one can plan that well.

No one.

No one, could know that eventually I would come here to try and save, well, I don't even know what I was here for, to save my father I supposed, but was that really it? what was the thing that compelled me to do this, to put the life of myself, and my friends on the line, for such a fragile reason. In its very core, the statement was vaunted. This whole thing had gone bad, really bad, we needed to get out. We needed to retreat, or we would all die, and I couldn't stop them, it didn't matter how fast I moved, how strong I punched, how many tentacles I used, I couldn't stop the fate of this night, or was it morning, It didn't matter anymore. Everything here was about death

Was that the truth about life?

That it was about death?

No! I couldn't be, and I refuse to let this be the end, no man should accept his death, and neither was I, at least not without saving the ones I loved from the same fate, it was my fault everyone was here, hell it was pretty much my fault for everything. My blood spawned all this, all these things that lay at my feet, these autonomomous clones, this was my legacy, this is what my blood had been chosen to give to the world. I looked at my arms, my blood suit wasn't active. It depressed to me think that my blood legacy was that of evil. Why was there such evil in this world anyway? I suppose the public, and the world at large would soon find out about the evils of this world

NO!

They had to be stopped, if not for me, but for nikki, for the world, for those ignorant people out there without a clue.

There was a different air, a different sort of tension, and the kind that you know that what you do now, boils down to matters of life or death. Nothing mattered to me right now but nikki. I ran over to here, I didn't care what was going on around me. there she was sprawled on the ground, her wings were still black, and so was her hair, she was spread out like some crude star, her face; though unconscious, still had the look of distance on it, the same one the generals all wore, I didn't care that around her lay legions of the dead, be it godsent or reavers, it wasn't her fault it was theirs

All theirs!

I kneeled down, my body was sending a million messages to my brain, my warning sense was working in overdrive, whatever nikki had turned into, and it didn't like it. I didn't care, I could feel my emotions becoming overwhelmed, my eyes were starting to fog up, anything but her, nikki was my pinnacle of strength, and I needed her, I NEEDED HER.! I grabbed her shoulders

"Nikki! Nikki! Wake up!" I shook her, I knew it wouldn't do anything, I didn't care, I just didn't care, and she needed to wake up! everyone was crowded around me, why weren't they helping her? Why weren't they helping me? I shook her again, till all I could do was sit beside her and hold her hand. Tears were streaming down my cheek, I didn't care, and I was almost surprised I could still cry, after all in essence I was still a monster. Linda kneeled by me and placed a hand on my shoulder

"She'll get up eventually nav, she's just unconscious" I took a deep breath, I searched her for a heartbeat, I could feel everyone's around me, they beat spasmodically, all with the exception of katlin's, who's still beat as if she had only just joined the battle. I shook my head at Linda, her heart beat wasn't present, but surely it was simply blocked by this weird transformation I had. I turned around to face the crowd, there was about 25 of us left, all of the other godsents, blemished by there black bruises, cuts and scrapes, what exactly happened there anyway? Suddenly a bunch of them in the front of me exploded in a burst of black, making them fly out across the side. The reaper was rushing towards us, I had no time to act, it was all so surreal, and I couldn't move my body. I was in shock. I was in emotional shutdown. I looked around I noticed Adem standing next to immortus, his face full of warm emotion, he lunged at me, but why. It was all too quick, I got up I had to stop the reaper, from whatever it was he was doing. Then I saw it, in his hand was that phial, filled with exactly what I couldn't tell you, but it felt like pure evil I don't know how else to explain it, but whatever was in that phial was bad news, and he was heading straight for nikki, I couldn't do anything but move myself in his path. I had no qualms to save myself for the life of some one so pure. But then a hulkish form come between me and the reaper, the phial stabbed into the body. The body turned black instantly. The reapers face contorted into an evil I had never seen before. It was pure malice, and hatred, it belayed absolutely no sense of the usual face he had. I looked over Adem, how could he do that? How could someone save themselves for me? How Ironic was it that I was just ready to do the same. The reaper turned to Adem, his face so awash with pure evil

"STUPID BOY!" he struck out his hand purposefully, black mist flew out striking Adem with what looked like knives, the black enveloped him until it suddenly exploded, all that was left was smoke, Adem had been vanquished, gone. I noticed patches of his black skin all over the hall. the reapers voice was still in that dark voice, that was so different from his own. So corrupted

"It will take months to make that toxin again! That's stupid boy, for all of that you are all going to pay" I looked over to where Adem once was, we all did. He was gone, he couldn't be gone. How could he? He was Adem! The most beautiful and pure soul I had ever met. I just stared at the space he was for what felt like a lifetime

gone.

I couldn't stop myself. The pain of everything was overwhelming me. I yelled out, it was all I could do to express myself

"NOOOO!" my blood suit burst out of my pores rage was my everything now, I couldn't since anything else but rage, I lunged at the reaper, catching him unawares, I tore into his flesh with my spiked hands, I just kept digging into him, like I was digging a hole, a hole that was his skin. I pulled him up and slammed his head into the ground, again and again, all the time the reaper held the same stupid smile on his face, that spurred my rage on more. I couldn't stop attacking him. There was nothing else around me but me and him, him and his stupid smile. Every time I cut him, that black mist healed him I kept lunging, biting, attacking. Him, I kept recalling Adem's smile, his beautiful warm soul. How could he kill someone so pure, he was a true hero, Adem was a true hero, and he was valiant, warm, and fought always for the side of good selflessly. Every strike for a second made me feel better. Till finally the reaper start to fight back, he grabbed my wrist, then another and thrust me back, my tentacles lunging at him in response from my hands being tied. It was now I noticed how tired the reaper was, it was if his usual handsome attire was decaying, his true evil was showing. But he was seriously showing a large amount of ware and tear, I looked around me. My friends were squaring off against the remaining generals, no ones heart seemed to be in it though; I guessed they were all still surprised about the sudden death of Adem. It didn't matter, I finally understood now, life was about violence, and I was simply life's best tool for it, I can be violence, I can be violence incarnate I lunged at him more, digging into his chest, my tentacles striking every part of him my hands weren't hitting. A couple of the random godsents that weren't fighting, or had time to look, were watching me, I didn't care. I moved faster, stronger, sephillius's face was aligned with surprise. I would wipe that face off him. How dare he kill anyone! I attacked more, until finally I worked him near the wall, the exit to outside, where those massive doors stood. There was now however a large silver metal wall there, preventing our exit I didn't care. I struck him more, and more. Until he finally straightened his face. He thrust out his free hand. A black force throwing me back giving him room enough to breathe. I bladed my hands and lunged forward again, he disappeared into a puff of black smoke. Slamming me against the person-less wall. I turned around as I sunk to the floor desperately. There was no hope, raven had his eye planted on me firmly, he had an odd sort of anguish in his eyes, that contradicted his evil stance. The generals all appeared beside the huddled over reaper, his breaths coming in huge heaps. I stood up and began to run towards the stage, he wasn't getting away. I pushed faster and faster. My rage, the fever inside me burning me with at its furious intensity

the whole time I mumbled my new mantra

"I am a tool of violence" I didn't care about my humanity anymore, I didn't care about what happened to me, all that needed to happen was this man needed to die, they all needed to die! Die for what they had done to me, for what they were going to do, and for what they always had done. I yelled in anger, so loud that it echoed. I jumped towards them, enough to see Arthur's coy smile fade into a dark plume of smoke, and then they were all gone. The stage was empty it was all empty. I looked over, everyone was who standing before, was now sitting, some simply laying as if they were already dead, pools of blood in some peoples wake, I noticed the unconscious body of darius somewhere to my right, and I still didn't care, I was a tool of violence. I looked somewhere to the middle of the room Elijah was fighting with something invisible, until black goo began to roll over him, changing him the same way my blood suit changed me, he yelled out into the silent room

"What the hell is going on!" I didn't care, I just watched him suffer, nobody else moved, and even katlin finally looked tired. Her arm looked cut severely; but then everybody was severely cut bruised and broken, who cares, Adem was gone. Elijah was still struggling with his invisible assailants until his body contorted he turned into something closely resembling my blood suit, except his back sprouted long thin spikes from his spine, his jaw was slightly more elongated, and less human. His eyes, resembled mine, long and bugged but evil, his body stretched out a little more to give him a more inhuman look. And his skin turned leathery black, with green patterns off his shoulder and the insides of his legs and arms, his spiked hands and back spines, dripped with poisonous acid. He screamed in agony before falling flat on the ground, the black suit, reverting back only leaving his usual form lying on the floor, I mumbled to myself.

"Toxin indeed" the main hall felt so empty. The corpses of some of the godsents that didn't survive lay there in their sombre sleep, Along with the fallen reavers; I hated them. I kept walking until I made it to Nikki, her black wings the same way they were before. I sat down and pulled her up to me. She felt cold, I refused to believe she was dead, I had enough of death, she couldn't die, I couldn't handle it, and I would break. I needed her to keep me together. Adem was enough, I wasn't sure I could handle that, but if she died, If she didn't wake up, I would break, and I fear what the result would be, would it be the monster I truly am? I didn't care anymore, I would still sacrifice anything to have her alive again. I stroked her black hair, it felt so corse and unnatural, this was temporary they said this was temporary! Tears were streaming down my face, I looked over to my friends, they were all lying against the wall where the exit was, and most of them looked half dead. My chest was burning again, that beautiful sense of joy, it shined through giving me hope, hope that the future held something for me, anything. A tear leapt from my cheek onto Nikki's black hair, it shined with the same beautiful luminescence that I felt from my chest, her hair began to turn back to her perfect blonde, and her wings slowly disappeared, her hands returned to normal. And her face finally resembled hers again. Slowly warmth and life returned to her body, I hugged her more, it was beautiful the first shine of hope, that life was worth something again. Suddenly my sense from the back of my head flared. I couldn't see what it was, because I no longer had the shadow virus to support me, but I could hear it, it was a gruff voice. Full of experience and it barked orders like it was that entirely all he was used to doing.

"Demolition man, take at that wall, Ninja, your on recon, I don't want you seen, the rest of you are on high alert" my sight became my own again, something was going to happen to that wall. I got up leaving the humbled heap of Nikki on the floor. I yelled at to everybody still leaning on the wall

"Everybody get away from that wall, something's going to happen to it!" the tired bodies obeyed me immediately. Limping and slowly running away from the wall, that instantly glowed an odd amber, before loudly exploding sending out a shockwave above all of us. The noise was intense, and it was followed by smoke and dust, so much smoke and dust, I could hear footsteps hundreds of them. The smoke slowly floated away. Revealing hundreds of soldiers there guns all aimed at us. Carissa got up, she seemed to know these guys, and then I recognized the emblem on the one who seemed to be in charge, he was a big man, full of muscles, he was black, and his whole body seemed to emanate a sense of attitude. His black hair was pulled in a pony tail, his top lip pointed up into a snare, and his blue eyes shone even from this distance, he silently directed his unidentifiable soldiers to surround us. But it was unmistakable; they were the House Of M. My attention immediately turned to person next to him, who was the only one not wearing blue armour. He wore a black leather jump suit, which looked like it was crafted just for him. On the torso, it held a big "m" which covered the whole torso, it bore a specialized kind of design which made it look like it was on the verge of exploding I looked up to the face, the smile was cocky and sure of themselves, he wore glasses that belayed a sense of sophistication, I looked at it surprised, before I could stare at it again, it was josh, what the hell was josh doing here, well it used to be josh, his hair was longer, and more styled, and the air he held was, for a lack of better word, cooler. I stared at josh at disbelief till he pushed his glasses up to his hair and smiled to me. I looked at him angrily; he could have killed all those people with his carelessness. Josh grabbed a piece of debris that was falling from the roof, holding on to it for a second, until throwing it back into the air, the rock exploding miraculously, josh it seemed had gotten a new handle on his powers, something that made him seem massively stronger than the boy that could only simply explode by yelling 'K-BLAH'\

Finally the black man seemed to think he had the situation under control, and we were very obviously surrounded, Carissa ran up to him, she looked more haggard then she probably had been in her life

"What is the meaning of this?" the man simply sneered at her and shot her with a tranquil dart. I reared up. But something was holding me back; the man nodded to me, or was it behind me, how odd. Until I tried to step forward, something was seriously holding me back. I tried to move my arms I couldn't, I was literally stuck. A voice beckoned from my back

"Sorry nav…" then from in front of me appeared Kane

"Kane" he wore the same sort of black jumpsuit josh wore, his hair was tied back into a pony tail. And he seemingly looked like he had grown as well. He waved at me weakly. Until he flew back to the black man, he flew faster than a bullet; I never knew he flew like that, maybe that explained more why he was in the lion faction. I looked around to all my friends; they as well seemed to be frozen. The black man walked forward, still quite pleased with himself

"By order of the magisterial powers of the society of godsent, and furthermore the House Of M, with authority of myself, Cornel Wrath. You Navar Keelan are now placed under arrest. For insurmountable crimes against the order, and furthermore acts of treason, against the society itself. " I looked at him, I was utterly confused, I took a deep breath, and I wanted to mouth what the hell he was on about. But I couldn't move. From above us. The roof exploded. But it didn't cover us in dust, but the wall was alight with the sounds of engines. I looked up, there were three smaller aircrafts, with twin helicopter blades on their wings, and they looked like very sophisticated technology. The black man, who at least I now knew as sergeant wrath walked up to me smiling.

"Done a lot of work here haven't you son?" I looked around at all the dead, how could he think I did this? Sure, to the reavers, but they were only clones. All the others were a matter of self defence, how much could this man not understand, why he couldn't understand! I gave up fighting, I gave up everything, and I just turned my attention to Nikki keeping my eye planted on her firmly. As if to indicate to this ignorant man that she was the only thing I cared about.

CHAPTER 31

Yesterday's feelings.

This was the final straw, the final nail on my coffin, I gave up, I wasn't sure if someone could wholly and completely give up on life, but at this point I had given up. Adem was dead, I hadn't seen nikki, since we were all loaded onto this tiny air ship, apparently we were all being shipped to the prison of the godsents, how was this possible? How did my life end up this way? Here I was stuck in this laser cell, which I had been explained had been made specially for me. I couldn't use my powers, hell I could barely flex a muscle in this thing. I could see everyone else around me, they all just stared at the ground, and I too didn't want to look at them, this was all my fault, they were all here because of me, and there was nothing I could do about it, I suppose hence I just gave up, I just wanted to see nikki, but all I got was my friends not looking at me. but at least I had finally come to an epiphany about something, the thing Carissa had come to investigate on, was not the mysterious disappearances of the godsent, it was me, she was an unwitting pawn in their game as well, apparently I was too powerful to be let loose, too powerful to be free. I didn't care anymore, nothing mattered to me anything anymore it was all black, my life was black and everything I ever cared about, my future, nikki, my friends, were all doomed. And the one thing I was trying to stop, people doing things for me, sacrificing themselves for me, was the one things that's ended up happening, my friends had payed for my blood legacy, paid for something I had no control over, they were all going to jail, along with me to be poked and prodded and tested by a bunch of scientists. I pushed my head to the ground, the engines whirred loudly around me, in my hands was the journal I had given Adem, Mr Jackson upon kicking up the biggest fuss I had ever seen him gave me this book, said it might comfort me somehow, how could this souvenir, of the man I essentially killed make me feel better? I hadn't dared to open it up yet, I was too afraid, but I needed to, I just did. I opened it, the front page, it held an intricately drawn logo of Adem's name, which clearly must of taken days to finish. There was a picture of the raven faction logo, and then on the next page was a drawing of me, it was perfectly like me too, Adem could really draw. The picture had me with a determined look on my face, facing some unknown shadow, behind me one of my hands was holding back a bunch of people I was apparently saving

Tears

I couldn't stop them, it was so beautiful, to be drawn this way by someone so valiant and pure. I turned the page, the next drawing was of Kyle, he was in a beautiful forest surrounded by forest animals that he was communing with, and somehow, even though it was only on paper it somehow captured, Kyle's gentle spirit. The next page was of Shane. he was alight with pure flame, and the smile he had, looked like he had finally had made peace with himself. Linda and Leigh's was simply a drawing of them sitting together, but it captured their intense love for each other that I had never seen. And Nikki's was simply a beautiful picture of her soaring above the clouds, my tear tarnished the paper. I couldn't believe myself how dare I tarnish this beautiful work. I wiped the tears from my eyes, and turned the page, there was nothing left. The pictures said enough for me, I clenched them. I missed Adem so much, and the only thing I craved was to put a picture of him in this, happy and content with himself

For he was a true hero, And I had just drowned.

**Epilogue:**

Cold air swirled around the group. There was an air of presence among them, the moonlight caressed their silhouettes as they stepped onto the grassy tundra. One man stepped before the large crowd, which remained noiseless and obeying. The silver hair man smiled in the darkness as he cracked his knuckles, he looked to his crowd and smiled, he looked towards the people in the front, his generals, his precious generals, he surveyed the new one of his list, 'Gungrave', sure he was a second prize. But he would make a fine general indeed. His reavers behind them, the clones that obeyed him so mindlessly, they would fill the ranks of his army on the future, and there would indeed be an army, because the humans have grown rotten in their stagnation, they needed to be purified. He looked upon his destination, as he filled the streets with his ranks, the cobblestone path sounded through the silence. He loved Europe, it was the so…exotic, the least untainted of all of them. He smiled as he headed for the largest building in this quiet town. He pushed the door open, it opened without a touch. The dark path stretched for an age. Until finally he reached his destination, the roar of the crowd was intense, nearly over a thousand godsents, all twisted to his will. There it was his army, his army of the future

**Sneak peek chapters:**

**Cold metal**

Cold metal, it was all he could feel. His sense felt fresh, untouched, he opened his eyes, for the first time. he sensed things

For the first time.

Everything felt new to the boy, this cold, how did he know it was cold? It felt fresh and absolute, but how did he know what cold was? He started to feel his extremities, he was human, or at least he thought he was, but how did he know what human was? He got up, and pushed himself to a sitting position, there was nothing in the room but darkness with exception of the harsh light that shined in the middle of the room. The boy got off the cold metal table and felt his feet, they were new as well, his muscles groaned from their use. But ached for them to be used more. He was naked, but he had no notion that this was taboo. He walked a couple of more steps before he got the hang of walking, it was all so new. He stepped forward towards the light, It was the only destination he could think of, finally he made, the light shined down upon him, hurting his eyes. he looked towards the door, there were shadows of something near them he couldn't quite put out. He stretched out his arms, whilst traversing the distance he waved his arms in the darkness. They tensed and shook as he totally expected them to

But how did he know what to expect?

The boy knew nothing but confusion, was this confusion? Everything shined so new, he had no idea of his past, no idea of his future, the only thing he knew of, was right now? right here, and all he was a naked boy. In a dark room with nothing but confusion. He picked up something that was on a table next to him, the texture of the paper felt so knew to him. He adjusted his eyes so he could read the name of the file,

How did he know how to read?

It read "Damien" was that who he was? Was he Damien?

**A paper heart:**

I looked around at the crowd, the canyons, the sun, the horizon, I tried to soak it all in. it was so big, it was beyond me. I pushed my hands up to my red headband, it was still drenched in blood, and I didn't care

I missed them so much.

I looked over to the cliffs that separated us from the world beyond, a lonely white wolf footed the ground above us, its eye curiously focused on me as if I was what it was here for. I took my gaze off it, something was blinding me. above me burned a brilliant platinum flame, glowing its beautiful essence. Shane noticed me, noticing him and smiled, his white flame washing over all of us. Kyle howled into the fading sun, his body was different, he was changed, and he was his full kitsune form, resembling something of a werewolf, but beautiful and graceful. His tails kicked up some dust. As he held out his stick, grasping on it with his furry hands. Around me were my friends, I had to let my mind not wander. There was a million places I should be but here, but I had to be here.

There was no where else I wanted to be. On the side of the wall crawled Elijah, in his toxin form, it was strange, there was me, there was Adem, and now there was Elijah, all of us resembling the same spider-man-usque form, I sighed as Ronny bumped into me, spinning dark force energy around his finger, he knew I shouldn't be here either, but he understood why I was, I looked up at where the wolf was, it had disappeared, how curious, finally I left myself look beyond, upon the valley beyond, I let myself soak in the sounds, the noises, the intentions of all the thousands of people down there, that all wished us harm. I turned around, I was not without my army, but it didn't matter, right now I fought alone, and they all knew why, I touched the headband, one last time and without warning, I ran, with all purpose and determination I ran. I didn't care if anyone followed me, from now on, I fought alone…


End file.
